In Retrospect
by Zyellowz
Summary: Another mysterious boy has somehow made his way to the South Pole - he carries dual swords, and he says his name is Lee. Time travel.
1. Polar Bear Dog Cubs

_A.N: Basically, it's TimeTravelling!Zuko - but not as straightforward as you might think. There is an actual plot. But it might be a bit confusing and un-obvious until later chapters._

* * *

 **Chapter One: Polar Bear Dog Cubs**

* * *

The abandoned Fire Navy ship was a dark specter in the snowy landscape, a foreign atrocity in the expanse of virgin ice. It was a reminder that _they_ had been here and that they could come back whenever they wanted to take everything away again. Katara had gotten used to its shadow on the horizon as the backdrop to her everyday life, tainting every mundane moment with the promise that even here, in the frozen bottom of the world, she was not safe from them.

The Tribe had a legend about the ship. It had been part of a raid that took many innocent lives, but it was caught in a storm and stuck in an iceberg, separated from its fleet and left to the mercy of Southern forces. Waterbenders sieged the ship, sealing every exit with ice and leaving the Fire Nation soldiers inside to die of cold and starvation. A hundred years later, the trapped souls of the soldiers still prowled the depths of the ship, waiting to devour the Water Tribe children that set foot in it.

Obviously Katara knew it couldn't be true, but that didn't make the colossal vessel seem any less eerie or menacing. "We're forbidden from going near it," she said as she raced to catch up to Aang. "It could be booby-trapped."

Aang stared at the looming metal monstrosity in awe. "C'mon. If you want to be a bender, you can't let fear stop you." He leaped in the air, a flicker of orange and yellow swallowed up by the hole in the hull.

Katara steeled herself. _Bender._ Right.

The inside of the ship was a labyrinth of empty corridors and black doorways open like waiting jaws. Their steps made hollow noises against the metal. It was just like how Sokka described it in horror stories, with holes waiting to trap her feet and twisted metal that clawed at her parka whenever she had to squeeze past a tight spot. Something in the depths of the ship clanged, the sound reverberating with phantom echoes from all directions. Her courage drained fast. "Come on, Aang, let's go back. This pla-"

The words died in her throat.

She'd just walked into some sort of barracks - and there was a human-shaped lump on the floor.

Aang rushed in from the adjacent room, alarmed by her scream. "Katara, what's wrong?"

"A-a bo-" Katara stuttered, falling back and scuttling as far away as she could. "A bo-bo-body!" _A dead Fire Nation soldier,_ _it was going to eat her –_ "Don't get close!"

"No, look!" Aang gesticulated. "He's breathing!" Katara watched with wide eyes as, indeed, part of the figure seemed to rise and fall, like a chest moving up and down. Her breath started coming in shallow, panicked pants. The Fire Nation soldier was _alive._ "We have to save him!" Aang cried, rushing to the figure's side. "Come on, Katara, let's take him back to the village."

"Are you crazy? He's Fire Nation!"

Aang paused, taking a good look at the body he was trying to lift onto his shoulders. "He's wearing Earth Kingdom clothes. And even if he was Fire Nation, he'll die if we leave him here."

Katara moved out of the way as Aang started dragging the body out of the abandoned ship. She hesitated for a moment. Helping a Fire Nation, and- but no, Aang was right. He wore Earth Kingdom clothes. She approached to grab one of his arms and sling it across her shoulders. Aang smiled gratefully from the man's other side.

 _Not man, boy,_ she realized, surprised. He was probably around her brother's age. His skin was ghostly white, a sharp contrast to the dark, scraggly hair that hung over his eyes. His features were even and straight, and he would have been handsome if not for the gauntness in his cheeks and purple bruises under his eyes. His lips were a shade worryingly close to blue, and delicate droplets of ice clung to his eyelashes.

He looked peaceful, almost, as if he were sleeping. But when she touched his face his skin felt cold, even through her mittens. "We need to get him warm." They stopped for a moment so Katara could shrug off her parka and put it on the stranger. His limbs were dead and heavy as she slid them into the sleeves.

Between the two of them and with a bit of help from Aang's airbending, they made it to the village in record time. Sokka was waiting for them at the entrance. His eyes widened when he took in their load. "Who's that?"

"We found him in the abandoned ship-"

"What? Katara! You know it's forbidden-"

"We don't think he's Fire Nation. Please, Sokka, he needs help," she said. The boy hadn't opened his eyes, and his breathing was labored and irregular. Katara had noticed a darker patch in his hair that might have been dried blood.

She'd been so scared when she first saw him. If she'd been alone, she might have actually ran instead of helping him. Guilt curled in her stomach at the thought. Good thing Aang had been with her and insisted on bringing him - it was the right thing to do.

And now she really wanted to find out what an Earth Kingdom boy was doing in that ship.

Sokka wasn't having it. "You remember what happened with that polar bear dog cub? What happened when you brought it home, hm?"

"This isn't the same thing. He'll die if we don't help!"

Sokka jabbed his finger at her. "That's what you said about the bear dog!"

Their confrontation attracted the attention of some village women, who formed a circle around them. Gran Gran observed in silence as Sokka frowned and crossed his arms. "He could be a spy. What you've done is irresponsible - you've put the Tribe in danger just by bringing him here."

"It's not Katara's fault," Aang cut in. "If you have to blame someone, blame me." He shifted the weight of the stranger on his shoulders. "But we can't just leave him to die, Sokka."

Sokka looked alternatively at the passed-out boy and Aang and Katara's identical beseeching expressions, and huffed. "Fine. But I'm going to tell our troops to keep him under watch at all times."

Katara's eyebrow twitched. "Sokka, none of your _troops_ are older than five. Aang and I will do it."

They transported him to Sokka and Katara's hut and laid him down near the fire. "He needs to get warm quickly," Gran Gran counselled. "Sokka, Aang, check him over for injuries. Katara, go tell the women to go back to the fishing."

"I think there's blood on his hair-" she started.

"Go, Katara. I will take care of it."

By the time Katara returned to the hut the stranger was buried under a pile of furs and blankets, and a bandage was wrapped around his head. When she laid a hand on his forehead, she was pleased to find it reassuringly warm. She unwrapped the bandage to check the head wound while Sokka went through a pile of clothes in the corner. "This is all he had on him," he said, showing her a dagger. Katara stopped what she was doing to inspect the inscription. _Made in Earth Kingdom._ On the other side of the blade, _Never give up without a fight._

"Told you he wasn't Fire Nation." She returned to her task. He had a cut, like he'd been hit over the head with a blunt object and his scalp had opened.

"But then what was he doing there?"

"No idea," Aang replied, hovering over Katara's shoulder.

"It looks like he was attacked," she said, eyeing his wound with worry.

Sokka stood up, expression set. "I'm going to the abandoned ship. We need to find out how he got to the South Pole and what he was doing here. Make sure he doesn't escape." He left the hut, grumbling about stupid sisters finding troublesome boys in the snow.

Aang slumped a bit at that.

"Don't worry, Aang. I'm sure he didn't mean you."

Katara stayed with the stranger throughout the morning. He slept perfectly still, and his temperature continued rising until it seemed like he had a slight fever. She wiped the sweat on his face away with a cold towel, wondering if he was going to wake up at all. Sometimes people who spent too long in the cold never did. Gran Gran called it the Sleeping Death.

Sokka brought back a pile of things from the ship, which included a teapot, a blue theater mask and a sword. As it happened, it wasn't one blade, but two that fit together, and upon discovering this he started playing around, using them in demonstrations to his class of toddlers. Katara wasn't surprised when he returned five minutes later crying about a cut in his thumb. "You really shouldn't touch other people's things," she admonished.

A rustling sound came from the stranger's corner. The siblings were at his side in an instant. "Hey, are you okay?" Katara asked. "Can you hear me?"

The boy blinked, revealing eyes that glimmered like honey in the darkness of the tent. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Sokka, get some water," she snapped.

Aang entered the hut with a breeze of air. "Did he wake up? Did he wake up? What did he say?"

Katara took the cup from Sokka and brought it to the stranger's lips, lifting his head with her other hand. "Here, drink this." He swallowed greedily, before slumping back, trembling. "How are you feeling?"

The boy's eyes fixed on her face, and then moved to Sokka behind her, where they rested for a second before landing on Aang. "I'm so glad…" he whispered hoarsely. "So glad I found you." His eyes closed and a sigh escaped his lips.

"He was looking for us!" Sokka exclaimed. "He _is_ a spy!" The stranger twitched in protest, but it seemed he was too tired for any other reaction.

"Oh, shut up and go away, Sokka. He needs to rest."

"No! We still don't know what he's doing here. Hey, you! Wake up."

Katara shot Aang a meaningful look. The airbender made a confused expression. She flickered her eyes to Sokka, and gave Aang the same meaningful look. His face brightened.

"Sokka, I forgot to tell you, I saw the kids playing with one of those clubs you told them not to touch."

"They were playing with my _machete_?"

"Yeah! That. C'mon." Aang grabbed Sokka's hand and started to pull him out of the tent, smiling at Katara once before he disappeared under the flap.

The boy under the furs relaxed when they left. Katara smiled. "I'm sorry about my brother. Here, have some more water." He drank, and she put his head back on the covers, being careful not to jostle him. "You should rest. I'll be near if you need anything." He gave a barely perceptible nod and was soon asleep.

The boy awoke again some time later, when the sky was already darkening. This time, Katara got him to sit up, and gave him some seal jerky soup. "Thank you," he said. He never looked right at her, using his bangs to hide his eyes. She managed to catch glimpses though, and realized that the irises were lighter than she'd first thought – a gold so vibrant it was almost yellow. He looked around the hut, her scrutiny obviously making him uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare," she said. "You're the second person I've ever met from outside my tribe."

"No, it's, um, fine." His voice had a raspy quality to it, but it wasn't unpleasant. "I was just… This is where you live?"

"Yes."

His eyes searched the room, looking at the furs and the small fire, and Sokka's stuff strewn around on the floor, and some pants Katara was in the middle of mending slung over a chair in the corner. "It's very… cosy."

She blushed. "Well it's kind of small, we, um, normally we'd be living in the Chief's hut but we've turned that into a nursery-"

"No! I meant, it feels like a home."

Katara blushed more warmly. "Oh. Thanks."

The boy slurped his soup to cover the awkward silence that followed.

Sokka burst into the tent. Aang followed behind him, biting his lip apologetically, but Katara reassured him with a wave of her hand. He'd managed to keep her brother busy for hours; it was more than she'd hoped for. Sokka was carrying a machete and pointed it at them menacingly. "Katara, get away from him."

She sighed, whispered an apology to the stranger and went to stand beside her brother. Sokka glared at the boy, tapping his machete in his other hand. "You're not getting out of it this time. Let the interrogation begin."

The boy sighed and snuggled deeper into the furs. He looked like an overgrown seaprune with a face. "What do you want to know?"

"What's your name?" Aang piped up.

"Lee."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Aang. These are Katara and Sokka."

"Hey!" the latter protested. "I'm in charge of the questioning."

"Sorry."

"Are you Fire Nation?"

He took a second to answer. "No, I'm from the Earth Kingdom."

Sokka started pacing back and forth in front of Lee, trying to seem intimidating, but Lee didn't look at him, didn't look at any of them; his gaze was fixed on a spot on the floor, his features pinched and tight. "Are you okay?" Katara asked.

His eyes lifted, and she could see the moment he took in the three of them, drinking them in. She saw the current of emotion behind his eyes right before he closed them and a tear slid down the side of his face. He quickly wiped it away with his arm. "Yeah," he replied, his voice thick. "I just- I didn't think I'd make it." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "Thank you for finding me."

Even Sokka softened at that. The Water Tribe siblings knew how terrifying the endless ice could be sometimes. Getting lost in the void, with nothing but white pressing in from all sides could make the most hardened warrior go mad... if the cold didn't kill them first. "Hey, it's okay," Aang said. "You're safe now."

Lee looked away, embarrassed. "Thanks."

"What are you doing all the way down here, if you're from the Earth Kingdom?" Sokka asked, though in a distinctly less aggressive manner.

He looked around some more. "This is the Southern Water Tribe?"

"Yes. Well, what's left of it." At this point it was obvious that Lee wasn't an enemy, and he was the second most interesting thing that had happened to her in years (Aang got first place because he was an airbender and might maybe possibly take her to the North Pole) and he seemed like he'd gone through a lot. He should at least know where he was.

Then a thought occurred to her. "Oh! Are you an earthbender?" Maybe he could teach her a few moves, like Aang had been trying to do.

The flare of hope died before it was even born when he shook his head. "No."

"So why are you here?" Sokka persisted.

At this Lee hesitated. "The... Fire Nation destroyed my boat."

Katara's eyes widened. "What did you do?"

"Some things. I destroyed a fire temple, but that part was an accident." He took a deep breath, his hands clenching white on the furs. "I washed up on a chunk of ice. I knew the Southern Tribe had to be somewhere close, but I wasn't sure where. Then I saw the abandoned ship... I can't remember after that. I think walked there, but I didn't have the strength to keep going." He looked up at them, golden eyes wide. "I didn't think I'd find you." They frowned at the odd phrasing, until he clarified, "I mean, the Southern Water Tribe."

The siblings looked at each other, absorbing the story. They had a private conversation in the space of a few seconds that neither Aang nor Lee were privy to.

 _I still don't think we can trust him._

Katara frowned. _How can you be so heartless?_

He made a vague gesture with his arm. _Well, what do we do with him?_

Katara glanced pointedly at the bowl of soup Lee was holding. _Nurse him back to health, obviously._

Her brother took a step forwards. "As soon as you can walk, you go back to where you came from."

"And how do you expect him to do that?" Katara protested. " _Walk_ across the ocean?"

Lee smiled, as if there was an irony in the situation. But then his eyes landed on Aang, and the smile dissolved into an intent look. "I understand if you want me to leave. But I swear on my honor that I mean no harm to any of you, or your tribe."

* * *

Sokka, Katara and Aang conferred just outside the hut, whispering in hushed voices. "There's something he's not telling us," Sokka insisted, shooting a glance back at the hut.

"Maybe," Aang allowed. "But I think he's genuine when he says he doesn't mean any harm. I have a feeling about him…"

"Sokka, we have to let him stay," said Katara. "He's in no condition to survive alone in the Pole."

"Okay, but for how long?"

A silence descended upon the three as they contemplated the question. Since the men had gone to war, hands had been short for hunting and fishing expeditions. Perhaps they could use Lee's help when he recovered. She sneaked a glance at her brother. Sokka had often complained about the lack of manly men he could do manly things with in the village. Surely he would warm up to the idea of having another boy his age around. The look in her brother's eyes wasn't particularly warm, though. For some reason, he was suspicious of Lee; then again, he had also been suspicious of Aang at first.

Aang provided the solution. "Sokka, I've been thinking, maybe Appa and I could give him a ride back to the Earth Kingdom."

"I guess that should solve the problem... _If_ your bison can actually fly."

"He sure can! He can fly faster than me." Aang hesitated and met Katara's gaze. Her heart rate picked up.

 _If you want to be a bender, you can't let fear stop you._

She'd been thinking about the North Pole ever since Aang first mentioned it. It would mean leaving her tribe - her family, everything she'd ever known. But it would also mean finally learning to bend. She imagined all she could be capable of if only she had a better grasp of her gift - build entire ice buildings by herself, hunt the largest predators, control the ocean under her canoe.

The true appeal wasn't just the waterbending. She was fourteen, and she hungered for life beyond clearing tables and washing dirty socks. She wanted to know what the world was like beyond their little corner of the ice.

"Aang also offered to take me to the North Pole to learn waterbending," she blurted.

"What?"

She looked away, biting her lip. "Sokka, you don't understand. Not being able to bend properly is so frustrating–"

Anger quickly clouded the hurt in his eyes. "So you would choose your weird magic water over _us?_ Your family?"

"It would only be for a short while! Only a few months - then I would come back."

Sokka stood up abruptly. "Forget it, Katara. Going to the other side of the world? It's too dangerous! We're at war! What if the Fire Nation captures you? Dad said I had to take care of you!"

"Aang will be with me."

"Yeah," Aang agreed, "I wouldn't let anything happen to her, I promise."

Sokka eyed Aang's wide, sincere smile for a minute. "Wow, I guess if the twelve-year old monk says so there's absolutely nothing to worry about then."

"Technically I'm a hundred and-"

"Whatever! The answer is no, and that's final."

Katara's temper rose like an angry wave. "You don't get to make decisions about _my_ life!"

The argument started in shouts and ended in tears and accusations. The two siblings went to bed in frosty silence that persisted throughout the following day, despite Aang's efforts to convince them, trick them, or force them to make up. Katara didn't understand her brother's worry for her safety, and Sokka didn't understand the pull of waterbending in his sister's soul.

To take her mind off her fight with Sokka, Katara spent more time with Lee. After a day he was feeling much better, able to eat solid food and walk around normally. She gave him back his clothes and weapons, watching as he examined his swords before expertly sheathing them in one smooth movement.

Right then, Katara realized something important. She couldn't find a way to articulate it, even in her thoughts - but she somehow could tell that not only did he _know_ how to use his swords, he _had_ used them. There was something contained and quiet in his eyes, and in that moment, she knew that Lee, fragile as he looked now, wasn't harmless.

He insisted on contributing something despite Katara's instructions to stay in bed. He saw her doing the laundry, and decided to help – in the end Katara gave in, since moving around a little would do him some good, and she could use the company. While they worked, he asked her questions about her life in the South Pole, while she asked about his life in the Earth Kingdom. His answers were noticeably shorter and vaguer than hers, but she didn't mind. She'd never had someone to complain to before – Gran Gran essentially told her to suck it up and complaining to Sokka was like talking to a wall.

"I never considered the possibility of leaving before, because it didn't exist. But now that Aang's here, and he has a bison that can _fly_ us there, how can I not go? It'll be dangerous, but..." she grimaced. "It's just, I feel like I could do so much more than just this all day." She waved vaguely at the water in the basin, and it spun lazily following her motion, twisting the clothes floating in it. "I know, it's stupid."

"No, it's not," he replied quietly. "We all need to search for our own destiny. Yours is out there."

He seemed serious. "Uh, yeah. I guess that's..." Her destiny was to go out there, to learn bending, to see the world. A feeling of relief and rightness washed over her, as well as anticipation. Her decision was made. "You're right. It's out there." She smiled at him. "Thanks. And thanks for helping with laundry. I appreciate the company."

"No problem. I used to do this a lot." He eyed a particular grease stain and leaned closer to scrub at it more vigorously.

"How come?"

"Huh?" He straightened. "Uh… I had a friend." He returned to scrubbing, not meeting her eyes. "She used to take care of all this in our… group, for a long time. I helped."

"That was nice of you."

He smiled, and there it was, that hint of irony again. "She didn't think so, at first."

"Why?"

"We didn't start out as friends. She hated me. I sort of deserved it." He was quiet for a minute. "The laundry thing was me trying to make up for it."

Katara hummed. She'd gathered that Lee was a reserved individual, and didn't like talking about his past, so she was a bit surprised by his willingness to share the story. At the same time, she noted the careful lack of context or detail. "What happened to her?"

Lee's mouth tightened, and he closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Katara said, realizing how insensitive she was being, given his use of past tense. "You don't have to tell me."

His golden eyes opened, and there was a pained look in them, so full of sadness and guilt and longing. Katara took a step back, surprised. His hand lifted, as if reaching for her, but it stopped in the space between them. "I wasn't fast enough. I should have caught it. I-" he swallowed. "I'm so sorry, Katara."

The intensity of his emotions frightened her. His eyes begged forgiveness, a forgiveness that she couldn't give because she had no idea what he was talking about _._ Unsure of what to do, or why he was apologizing to _her,_ Katara hesitated, and in the next moment Lee was gone, the cloth he'd been washing abandoned on the side of the basin.

His words haunted her for the rest of the day. _I wasn't fast enough._ There had been so much regret, so much guilt. She found him two hours later hunched in on himself at the edge of the white cliffs, watching the ocean ripple like a blanket underneath him. An icy breeze blew in from the water, but Lee wasn't wearing the parka they'd given him, she noted with some concern, only his old, ratty Earth Kingdom tunic.

"You must think I'm crazy," he observed.

Katara thought about it. She'd been thinking about it all day. Her mother's face appeared blurred in her mind. _I should have been faster._

"We all have ghosts," she replied honestly.

After a while she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Lee… if you ever need to talk about it, I'll listen." She wanted to give him a hug, but they didn't know each other well enough for that yet, so she squeezed his shoulder instead.

"Thank you," he replied, his gaze still lost in the ocean.

* * *

They were ready to go. They had packed food, sleeping rolls, cooking utensils and clothes, and everything was tightly bound to the sides of the saddle. Aang was already sitting on Appa's head, holding the reins. Katara checked her small satchel for the hundredth time as she paced nervously in front of the giant bison, creating a trodden path in the snow. They had said their goodbyes to Gran Gran and the rest of the tribe an hour ago. Still, she couldn't bring herself to take that final step and join Lee in the saddle.

"Katara…" Aang prodded.

"Just a while more. He might change his mind."

"Katara, it's been an hour. I don't think he's going to." Aang made sure to speak as gently as possible. "It's not goodbye forever. You'll come back after you learn waterbending."

But he didn't get it. He was an airbender; they were nomads. Used to travelling, to leaving things behind. Katara had lived here her whole life. Her hands clenched and unclenched in her mittens. "I know. I just…" She'd been hoping that Sokka would come with them. Or at least, that he'd come to say goodbye; but he hadn't left the hut, still hurt over her decision to abandon him and the tribe. Katara's shoulders sagged. "Yeah. I guess you're right." She forced herself to turn towards Appa and climb into the saddle.

Lee sat up, looking groggy, having fallen asleep while waiting. "Is Sokka here yet?"

"No," she replied, looking away. "We're leaving."

"What? But he _has_ to come."

Katara averted her eyes and settled herself on the opposite side of the saddle without saying anything.

"Yip yip," Aang called softly.

"Aang, wait, he _has_ to-" but before they knew it they were rising, and Lee's protest was masked by the thunderous sound of Appa's tail hitting the ground and the whoosh of snow lifting.

Katara leaned over the edge of the saddle, watching as her village grew smaller and smaller in the distance. She turned her eyes to the endless sky and breathed in the frigid air, letting it burn in her lungs. A flock of arctic birds flew above Appa in formation, white dots in the vastness of the sky, mirroring the pattern of icebergs in the sea below.

She hadn't doubted Aang when he said that Appa could fly, but to actually experience it was like nothing she'd imagined. Still, her wonder was dampened by her brother's absence. Sokka had always been there. Even when their mother wasn't. Even when their father wasn't. He had been her one constant. The only thing keeping her together.

She was about to tell Aang to go back – she couldn't leave after all – when her eyes caught on a small blue spot at the edge of the coast, jumping and waving his arms. "Aang, turn around! It's Sokka! He came!"

The airbender tugged on the reins, causing Appa to execute a sharp turn. They dove, and Katara was out of the saddle and in Sokka's arms before the bison even landed. "I promised Dad I'd take care of you. I'm not letting you go alone," he breathed in her hair. He had a pack slung over his shoulder, with the boomerang sticking out of the top.

She hugged him so tightly it hurt.

Lee smiled at Sokka. "You're late."

Aang looked back at his three new friends sitting in the saddle and grinned. "Alright, now that we're all here. Hold on tight, ladies and gentlemen, because we're about to take off. Next stop: the Southern Air Temple!"


	2. Hardly Changed

**Chapter Two: Hardly Changed**

* * *

They didn't reach the Air Temple that night. Appa hadn't yet recovered from his one-hundred year sleep, and Aang decided it was best to rest in one of the many islands surrounding the temple to give him a chance to rest. The islands used to be Air Nomad territory for farming and commerce, but had been devoid of civilization since the start of the war and were now overgrown with vegetation.

Around the campfire, Aang told stories of his childhood at the Temple, with Katara and Sokka often contributing anecdotes of their own. Lee didn't say much. He was content sitting back and listening to them talk with a vague smile floating on his face. Sometimes he asked questions about some of the things they said.

"Two fish hooks in his thumb?"

Katara grinned. "He tried to get the first fish hook out with another fish hook."

"It was a good idea, in theory," Sokka protested. "And you have no room to talk. What about that time you brought a polar bear dog cub-"

"Oh, come on. I know that was a mistake, okay?"

The following morning Katara was surprised to wake up to a warm smell filtering into her nostrils. She straightened to find Lee bent over the campfire, checking his tea pot. His hair was wet. He glanced at her when he saw her move. "Um… I made tea."

Aang whirled out of his sleeping bag and gracefully floated over. "Awesome! Thanks, Lee."

"Did you take a bath?" Katara blurted.

"Yeah. In the stream."

She shot him an incredulous look. "Wasn't it cold?" They were still quite close to the South Pole, and she wouldn't be surprised if this early in the morning the stream had been frozen solid. Back home they had to put a pile of snow in a pot over a fire every time they wanted to wash. Lee shrugged.

Sokka, of course, continued sleeping. Nothing but the sound or smell of meat cooking could have possibly woken him up. She told Aang this when he tried to airbend the scent wafting from the tea directly into her brother's nostrils. "We should get meat-scented tea," Aang advised Lee.

"Isn't that just stew?"

"No. Meat- _scented_ tea. Not _meat_ tea. There's a difference."

Lee snorted. "I'll be sure to look for it at the next market."

In the end, Aang grabbed a stick and slid it all over Sokka's sleeping bag. "There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!" Sokka sprang up and jumped around like a caterpillar before tripping and falling face first, much to everyone's amusement.

* * *

The closer they got to the Air Temple, the more restless Katara felt. Anticipation and dread twisted in her stomach. Intellectually she _knew_ that no one had seen an airbender in a hundred years, that the Fire Nation had wiped them out – but Aang was so positive and hopeful. And even if the air temple was empty… "Maybe we'll find a clue about the Avatar there."

Aang's back stiffened on Appa's head. "Right. The Avatar."

"It's possible, right?" The last Avatar had been an Air Nomad. Who knew what secrets they might find in the ruins.

"I guess," he replied nervously.

Lee watched the exchange grimly. Katara would have liked to know what he thought, but all he did was watch Aang's back. Sokka was distracted searching for blubbered seal jerky in their packs.

They did find a clue about the Avatar, alright. If a boy with glowing eyes floating inside a giant ball of air at the nucleus of a tornado could be considered a clue.

At the time, though, she didn't care about Aang being the Avatar. She cared about his emotional state, given that he'd just discovered that every single one of his people had been slaughtered by the Fire Nation. The skeleton of the Nomad left out in the open like that made her feel sick – she couldn't imagine what it must be like for him. The man his family, and from Aang's perspective he had been alive barely days ago.

But as much as she understood his grief, she had to calm him down somehow, because if she didn't, he was going to blast them all off the temple.

So even though this violent, vicious and vengeful version of Aang was terrifying, she pushed forwards regardless, bending her body against the wind, screaming out his name. A stronger gust pushed her over and she started sliding back, tumbling back, but colliding against something firm that held her up. "Keep going," Lee grunted, digging his heels in to support both their weight. Sokka grabbed her arm, pulling her forwards.

The next instants were a blur. She didn't know how the three of them managed to cover the last few meters to reach him, but she remembered grabbing Aang's hand and calling out to him. She also remembered Lee and Sokka there, anchoring her to the ground when it seemed like the wind was going to tear her to pieces, until finally, finally Aang heard her, and the gale died down to a flutter, and Aang's toes touched the ground and he collapsed to his knees, sobbing.

They had a funeral for Monk Gyatso. They carried his remains to the very top balcony of the temple, where they built a pyre and lay him on it. If she'd thought the temple was impressive from below, it was awe-inspiring from above; a spire that emerged from a sea of golden clouds, bathed in twilight. It was like standing at the edge of the world.

Aang approached the pyre, carrying a wooden object in his hand; she recognized it as the airbender relic the monk's corpse had been wearing around his neck. Aang left it next to the bones and then took two steps back. "Can someone," he started with a teary voice.

Lee went to stand next to Aang and snapped the spark rocks he was holding together. Normally it took Katara a few tries to light the campfire, but Lee was obviously better with spark rocks because a small flame jumped and took to the wood, spreading fast.

They watched the pyre burn in silence. The wood was dry, and there was little left of Monk Gyatso but bones, so a funeral that could have taken days with a fresh corpse was shortened to less than an hour. No one moved or spoke, except Sokka, whose fists tightened once. He whispered fiercely, "I hate the Fire Nation."

"Don't…" Aang started. "Monk Gyatso taught me that feelings of hate and vengeance poison the soul and rot us inside." Even as he said it his voice was hollow, empty. Katara remembered what the pain of losing her mother was like, and she reached out to him, enveloping him in a hug. Sokka joined in.

When the fire had consumed itself, Aang bowed to the pyre until his torso was parallel to the ground. "You were my teacher… my best friend. You said that the spirits of those we love never really leave us. May you have a safe trip to the Spirit World." It seemed he wanted to say more, but the words got caught in his throat. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry for running away." He hurriedly wiped at his eyes, before stepping back into a stance, twirling and moving his arms. The wind scattered the ashes to the golden sky.

Aang watched the wind for a long moment, tears sliding down his cheeks. He turned towards them. "I'm sure you've already guessed." His voice broke on the last word, but he continued on. "I'm the Avatar."

* * *

They decided to pass the night in the temple and made camp in Aang's old bedroom. There wasn't much space to spread out, but Katara was almost grateful; when she imagined a Fire soldier bursting through the door, she could reach out and touch Sokka's back to reassure herself that he was there. They had all been silent while settling down to sleep; Katara and Sokka on the floor, Aang up in his old bed and Lee sitting back against the wall, his swords in his lap and his chin bowed to his chest.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" she wondered to herself in a whisper. She'd been so sad from the funeral, and Aang had been so numb, and Lee so quiet and Sokka so angry, and none of them had been ready to talk about it. But now, a few hours later, the questions were starting to pile up and she couldn't fall asleep.

"I don't know," Aang replied. She was startled – she hadn't expected an answer. He was sitting on his bed, his silhouette cast against the brightness of the moon shining through the window. Behind her she heard Lee shift, indicating that he was listening, too.

"I guess… Because I never wanted to be," he confessed. "I felt like a fraud. I didn't want the responsibility."

"The Fire Lord has to be stopped," Lee said. "You're the only one that can do it."

Katara lowered her eyes. He was only twelve, had just had his entire world turned upside-down, and now had to face the enormous task of ending a war. At the same time he represented hope to thousands of people, he had returned _Katara'_ s hope. She looked up, gentle but firm. "Lee's right. The world needs you, Aang."

"I know that now." He stood up on his bed. "There's somewhere I have to go."

"We'll go with you," Sokka stated, surprising everyone. She'd thought he was asleep, but it seemed even he had trouble closing his eyes after the events of today.

Aang took them through hallowed corridors and open spaces to an atrium deep inside the temple. A set of huge wooden doors loomed above them, carved with ancient symbols and pictures of men and women performing titanic feats of bending. "I'm not supposed to enter this room until I turn sixteen," Aang said. "But now that they're gone, I don't think I should wait that long."

The chamber was huge, so big that in the darkness of night Katara couldn't even see the ceiling. Thousands of statues of men and women from the four nations circled the room, in an endless spiral of air, water, earth and fire; like eternal guardians of time. Its silence was not the hollow, lifeless quiet of the rest of the temple; it was a solemn silence, heavy with the weight of legend.

Katara didn't know how Aang's past lives were supposed to help him, but she assumed it was Avatar stuff that she couldn't really help him with, at least for now. They went back to bed shortly afterwards.

She had a nightmare that night. It wasn't specific - only blue, bright, scorching blue, like the glow of Aang's eyes and tattoos. As she watched, helpless, the glow spread out from Aang's tattoos until his whole skin was burning with it, and then it was her, and she was the one burning from the inside out.

She woke up gasping, phantom pain piercing the middle of her sternum. It was there for one heartbeat, two heartbeats, and then it was gone. Exhausted, Katara soon fell back asleep.

When she woke up the next morning, Lee wasn't in the room. _Obviously a morning person,_ she thought. She went about looking for a bathroom to freshen up for the day, delighted to find that the airbenders had built channels of water through the temple and they were still working a hundred years later. She was tempted to explore on the way back and started opening doors and peeking into hallways; but stopped when she remembered the skeleton of Monk Gyatso, just lying there in that shed in the same spot he had fallen. Thankfully the only signs of fighting in this part of the temple were a few scorch marks on the walls, but she'd rather not risk it. She went back to Aang's room taking the most direct route possible.

When she opened the door, a furry white creature flew out of the room, carrying one of their pieces of blubbered seal jerky. A second later she was bowled over by Sokka who was chasing the furry thing. "Sorry," he apologized before picking himself up and taking off down the corridor. "You! I will _eat_ you!"

Aang rushed out of the room. "Good morning, Katara," he said, smiling. She suddenly felt weightless, her hair loopies ruffling about her face and the ground disappearing from beneath her for a moment, before the tips of her shoes touched on the floor again. She opened her mouth to thank Aang but he was already half-running half-floating after her brother. "Sokka, you can't eat the lemur! He's Team Avatar's new pet!"

Katara sighed and went inside, eyeing the mess of unpacked bed rolls and food strewn everywhere with resignation.

She was in the middle of cleaning up when Lee returned, drying his damp hair with a towel. He put the towel away and bent down to help. "Where did they go?"

"No idea." They finished packing everything and then carried the bundles out of the temple to the old bison stables where Appa was sleeping. The silence as they walked through the hallways was a bit uncomfortable to Katara, but Lee didn't seem keen on filling it. He must still have been digesting the revelation that Aang was the Avatar.

She couldn't help but compare the two boys in her mind. Aang was all fun and air and light; she felt more comfortable with him after a few days than she did with members of her tribe she'd known since her birth. She _cared_ for him, she wanted him to be happy, she wanted to be happy with him. And now he was the Avatar and she knew she would go to the end of the world and back with him if he asked.

Lee was… If she had to choose a word, she would pick _careful,_ as strange as it sounded. There was something guarded in his eyes, especially when they asked about his past. At the same time, he seemed to trust them implicitly like he'd known them for years; and it was the dichotomy that threw Katara off-balance, the combination of caution and familiarity with which he treated them. She sometimes caught him looking at Sokka or Aang with an odd emotion in his eyes, an echo of that first time washing the clothes, though these unguarded moments were rare. He made her want to find out the reason for this expression; but the more she managed to wring out of him, the less she felt like she knew.

She stole a glance at him. He was already looking at her. "What do you think? About Aang," she wondered.

Lee looked away. "He's a great kid." Fondness and affection were evident in his tone. "He'll make a great Avatar."

Katara tore her gaze away, too. "I feel so sad for him. I can't believe the Fire Nation really exterminated the Nomads. It's barbaric."

Lee didn't say anything.

"Does this happen in the Earth Kingdom too?"

"Not like this," he reassured. "The war, now, it's more complex." They reached the bison stables and he put down the packs he was carrying near the door.

She wanted to ask for more details but she noticed his reluctant posture, and realized that perhaps he wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Still, she had to ask. "Is your village okay?"

"Well, Omashu is fine," he mumbled, and she let out a sigh of relief. He cleared his throat. "It's not a village, it's a huge city. They play a key role in the resistance, actually."

Katara brightened. "That's great."

Lee brushed his fingers over his left eye. "It's probably a good idea to make a stop there before we head to the North Pole."

"You're coming with us?" Until now, the plan had been to drop him off in the Earth Kingdom.

He looked up, surprised, then down, blushing in embarrassment. "Well, uh – yeah. Aang will need help. I'd like to be there, if he'll have me, I guess." He glanced at her, uncertain.

Katara smiled. "I feel the same way."

Sokka and Aang finally showed up, the latter with the flying furry thing perched on his shoulder, which he proclaimed to be named Momo, "and not Emergency Rations, Sokka." It was a cute little thing with large, soft ears and a small black nose, and Katara fell in love at first sight. It left Aang's shoulder to flutter over to Lee, draping around the older boy's head, its ears dropping down on either side like a weird hat. Lee made an expression that was torn between irritated and pleased.

The newly dubbed Team Avatar bent over Aang's map to trace out their itinerary for the next few days. Aang wanted their first stop to be Kyoshi island, because he wanted to ride the giant koi – Katara didn't know what those were, but Aang still wasn't over the Monk Gyatso incident and she was happy to agree with anything that would cheer him up. "You don't mind, right, Katara?"

She waved a hand dismissively. "I've been without a waterbending teacher for fourteen years. A few extra days aren't going to kill me."

They saddled Appa and went on their way. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't happy to leave the temple and its dreadful memories behind.

* * *

 _A.N: Thank you for the reviews last chapter guys! I realize some things may seem strange or look like plot holes, but gimme some credit pls._

 _Not a very exciting chapter, I admit. I think what I've planned for the next one will be better. Also longer, so it might take a while. Please review. What did you like? What didn't you like? What are you indifferent about? I can take criticism, so go ahead and shoot._


	3. Interlude at Kyoshi

_A.N.: Thanks a lot for the reviews, guys! More interesting things are coming soon I promise._

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Interlude at Kyoshi**

* * *

It turned out that the bay with the giant koi fish that Aang wanted to ride was also home to a titanic sea serpent. He made it out of the water safely but not before almost giving her a heart attack.

In their haste to flee the sea serpent's beach, they failed to notice a group of shadows following them until it was too late and they were ambushed. One of them hit Katara in the back, knocking her breath out of her lungs. A blindfold was drawn over her eyes, encasing her in darkness. "Sokka! Aang! L-oooomph," she grunted, as she was hit again in the stomach, and her hands were grabbed and held behind her back. She could hear Aang's and Sokka's similarly pained exclamations.

 _But Lee's still fighting,_ she realized, straining her hears. She could hear the clash of metal, and surprised shouts. Then someone pressed a sharp thing against her neck. "Drop your swords," a low voice said behind her. "Or your friends will pay." The sounds of fighting stopped abruptly.

She tried to push the person behind her away, but they were too strong. "Drop them," the voice repeated, applying more pressure to the blade, and Katara was forced to tilt her head back to avoid her throat being slit; she couldn't help the whine that escaped her lips. There was a moment of silence before the distinct clang of metal hitting stone. She heard Lee's grunts as he too was bound and gagged.

They were marched through the forest in silence. Katara tripped often over rocks she couldn't see; a stiff hand was always there to catch her and right her without a word. Aang tried to reason and negotiate as they walked. "Who are you? We mean no harm to Kyoshi Island, I promise. Where are you taking us?" But there was no response, and every minute Katara's heart rate climbed until she could hear nothing but the rush of her own blood.

 _They're Fire Nation. Why didn't we check whether Kyoshi had been invaded? They're going to kill us._

She wasn't going to cry. She wouldn't give them that satisfaction. She was going to bite and spit and hate them until her last moment.

But when they were all tied to a wooden post, and the blindfold was finally removed, she wasn't greeted by the sight of pointy black and red uniforms. No, their captors wore green and bronze – colors of Earth; and white face paint and they were all _girls._

She was so shocked she didn't know what to say. On her left, Sokka was similarly speechless, until he blurted, "Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?"

"There were no men," the leader replied. She was a short, slender girl with shoulder-length brown hair who couldn't have been much older than Katara herself. " _We_ ambushed you."

"There's no way a bunch of girls took us down!" Sokka protested.

"A bunch of girls, huh?" She approached, snapping open one of her fans, a weapon with wickedly sharp metal blades. "The Unagi is going to eat well tonight."

"He didn't mean it!" Katara said. "My brother's just an idiot sometimes." She looked for Lee and Aang, seeking help; but Aang was tied to the other side of the pole, so she couldn't see him, and Lee, although he was right beside her, seemed… amused by the situation, rather than frightened. She could only see his profile, but it was easy to tell that he was smirking – what was he so happy about?

The only man mixed in among the female warriors was older, probably a village leader or something of the sort. "Enough. Who are you? How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies?" He walked around to Katara's side of the pole and glared straight at Lee, who sobered under his gaze. "Kyoshi island has stayed out of the war so far and we intend to _keep_ it that way," he spat.

"I'm not a spy," Lee replied, tilting his head up in defiance. "I'm from Omashu."

"Really? Because you sure don't _look_ it," the man accused. "I say we throw this one to the serpent and question the others."

Thankfully Aang managed to convince the warriors that he was the Avatar with a little air-bending demonstration, and the atmosphere changed. The leader of the warriors, Suki, swiftly apologized and untied them. They were welcomed to the village, asked if they wanted anything to eat, they were even given a place to sleep.

Katara was overwhelmed by the hospitality. Not an hour ago she'd been convinced these people were going to kill her – and now they were offering them free food and drink and a tour of the sights. Aang, however, was perfectly happy with the turn things had taken, and spent the rest of the afternoon making friends with the warriors and the villagers. Sokka had holed himself up in the boy's room to sulk, grumbling about girls.

That meant that Lee was the only person she could voice her uneasiness to.

"Don't worry, Katara. We can trust the Kyoshi warriors. We're safe here." She'd noticed the suspicious looks the villagers shot him when his back was turned, the hard edge around their smiles when they spoke to him face to face. It was strange, the way they were so hospitable with _her,_ and all their hostility converged on him. She supposed that if he was happy with their situation despite that, it was probably alright.

There was one more thing that puzzled her. "How did Kyoshi manage to stay _neutral_ during the war?" In her eyes, choosing not to fight against the Fire Nation was almost as bad as siding with them.

Lee sighed and bit down on another juicy, sweet fruit. "Kyoshi wasn't important enough to be targeted by the Fire Nation at the beginning of the war, and they don't have very strong ties with the Earth Kingdom either. They preferred to stay out of it in order to keep their people safe."

She frowned. "Still."

"If they openly opposed the Fire Nation, they would be crushed in an instant. You saw how few warriors they have, and the Earth Kingdom wouldn't send reinforcements. They didn't have any other choice." He got up.

"Where are you going?"

"To get my stuff back. They still have it."

"Really? They gave mine back as soon as they freed us. Why would they keep yours?"

He shrugged. Katara decided to go with him, since Aang was still hanging out with those girls and she didn't have anything better to do. Also, she was a bit concerned. For some reason, the villagers really didn't like Lee. She didn't think they'd actually refuse to give back his stuff, but it was better if she went, just in case.

They found Suki near the edge of the village, talking with the elder. Lee cleared his throat awkwardly to announce their presence. "Oh," Suki turned towards them. "Lee, Katara. I'm truly sorry about what happened. I didn't know you were travelling with the Avatar."

"No harm done," Lee replied, before clearing his throat again. "Actually, I was wondering if you could give me back my swords. And the… things that were in my pack."

Suki smiled innocently. "Oh, I forgot about that. One of the warriors left your stuff in the dojo." Katara didn't believe for a second that it had been an accident, and by the look on Lee's face, neither did he. "It's closed now, but we'll open it again for training tomorrow morning. Perhaps you could swing by?" The tilt of her tone, the look in her eyes, it was clear she was issuing a challenge.

Lee's eyes narrowed. "I'll do that."

"I don't like her," Katara commented after they were a safe distance away. Part of it was the binding and gagging, and she still couldn't believe Kyoshi refused to fight the Fire Nation – but most of it was because of Suki herself. She was so confident, so smug, and had the same hard edge in her eyes when she looked at Lee. "I don't think we should stay here for too long."

Lee was still staring after the warrior. "The Fire Nation doesn't know that the Avatar has returned yet. We're safe here. Besides, Aang looks like he's enjoying himself." He nodded towards their friend, who was currently showing off his airbending trick with the marble to the village girls. Katara grimaced. It was true, Aang seemed to have cheered up from the whole Monk Gyatso thing, perhaps a bit too much. She hoped he wouldn't let all the worship get to his head.

The next morning she had a fight with him about it, because it _had_ gotten to his head. A humble monk, her foot. She stomped off back to Appa and their supplies.

Really, she thought as she rummaged through the bags, making a mental list of the food she needed to get, why was she always the one who took care of this? Why couldn't her stupid older brother be the responsible one for once, instead of going off to sulk like a little kid? She was especially pissed because Aang was right, she _had_ been jealous that they'd been having fun without her. She wanted to play around and have fun too. But _someone_ had to make sure Appa was being taken care of and their supplies were ready in case they had to leave early!

Her task done, she decided to go look for her moronic brother or Lee and see what they were up to.

She found them near the dojo at the edge of the village. Sokka looked angry, while Lee just seemed amused, watching her brother pace back and forth in front of the wooden building. "I'll show them," Sokka declared and stomped inside. Lee followed. Curious, Katara peeked through a window.

Her brother had interrupted the Kyoshi warriors' training. She didn't feel an ounce of sympathy when he got his butt kicked. In fact, she was glad. Katara loved him, he was her brother, but his sexist comments had gotten increasingly more annoying and it was time someone put him in his place. Even if that someone was Miss-I'm-A-Super-Pretty-Fearsome-Warrior. As Sokka limped out of the dojo, nursing a bruised pride (and a bruised behind, if the way he rubbed his posterior was any indication) Suki turned to Lee, who had been quietly slouching in the corner. The glint in her eyes was back. Katara tensed.

"Do you want to show us some manly fighting moves too?"

Lee straightened. "I just came to get my stuff back."

One of the warriors gave Suki a bundle. "Oh, yes. This." She unwrapped it, revealing Lee's swords and… the blue theatre mask? Katara frowned. "Curious thing, this mask. You know, Kyoshi is isolated from the mainland, but interesting rumors do reach us." She held the mask up to her face. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the Blue Spirit, would you? They say he's a skilled dual-sword wielder."

He stiffened. "Never heard of him."

"I see." She lowered the mask. "Even so, since you're already here, why don't we have a little spar? Kyoshi doesn't get to see much action, as you can imagine. It could be a good training exercise for my warriors."

Katara missed Lee's response because Sokka popped up next to her, also looking into the dojo. "What are they doing?" he whispered. Then, as he saw Lee unsheathing his swords and taking up a guarding stance, while opposite him Suki unfurled her fans, he smiled. "Yeah! You show her, Lee." Then the fight started.

Katara's jaw hit the floor.

She'd known, in the back of her mind, that Lee was dangerous _._ She just hadn't realized how much. The way he moved was brutal and deadly, all speed and explosive power. He twisted and jumped and flipped and Katara simply couldn't understand how anyone could _move_ like that _._ Lee had never boasted or even hinted at this strength. Sure he carried swords around and she'd assumed he'd be good with them, but this was another level entirely.

He was a Master.

Where had he learned? She could feel herself being pulled in deeper and deeper by the mystery surrounding this boy.

At first, he easily overpowered Suki. His swings were relentless and lethal, aiming for Suki's head, sides, knees. She barely managed to block them in time with her fans. He gained momentum with every clash of metal, pushing her back step after step, until he slammed her into the wall with a powerful kick. Suki grunted, but picked herself up, ready to engage again.

"Is this the best the Kyoshi Warriors can do?" Lee taunted.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Suki smirked, even as she wiped a bit of blood from her lip. Lee launched himself at her again, swinging down. Suki blocked with one of her fans, wincing as the blade slid down her forearm protector and glanced her elbow. She swiped with her other hand, but Lee easily blocked it. It was intense and a bit frightening.

"He's going to win," Sokka whispered.

"I think so too," Katara replied.

However, it turned out Lee couldn't keep up the same intensity with which he'd started for long. His movements slowed down, his breath coming in rasped pants, sweat rolling down his nose. As he faltered, Suki surged, revealing a speed that she'd obviously been holding back. She swung at him again. Lee blocked the fan with one sword. She brought her other fan down on it, twisting her grip. The sword flew out of Lee's grasp and embedded itself in the wall.

His eyes widened in shock, but Suki didn't let up; with a sudden burst of energy, she rained on him a flurry of blows that Lee struggled to meet with just one blade. He stumbled back, losing his footing. Katara gasped as Suki took the opportunity to hook her leg around his foot, but instead of falling, Lee twisted back, put his free hand on the floor and flipped away from her. He sprung up, making a move to get at his other sword. Suki saw it coming and cut him off, swiping diagonally with her fan. "Oh, I can't let you do that."

"C'mon, Lee," Sokka cheered under his breath.

Katara watched as Lee gripped his only remaining weapon with both hands and his face became intent, his expression smoothing. There was a moment when they only stared at each other; a drop of sweat rolled down Lee's chin and splished on the floor. He lunged. At the last moment, Suki twisted and twirled, and threw him into the wall with the help of his own momentum. Lee grunted with the impact and turned, but he was too late. She was already there.

"Dead," she announced, as she held him against the wall with her body and the blades of the fan pressing on his throat.

 _Hey,_ Katara thought, frowning. They weren't moving, only breathing hard as they stared into each other's eyes. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, but there was something charged in the air, in the stillness of the silence.

Lee smirked. "Not quite." He glanced down, where his blade was kissing Suki's side, between the plates of her armor, angled with the gap between her ribs. He could slice into her lung with a flick of his wrist.

Suki smiled and stepped back, while around them, the other Kyoshi warriors clapped.

"They were both quite good," Sokka grudgingly acknowledged. He seemed unhappy, for some reason.

"Are you kidding? They were incredible. Did you see Lee at the beginning? He was like, he was like Aang, but more-" she searched for a word. "More wham!" she exclaimed, making a chopping motion with her hand.

Sokka grimaced. "He wasn't _that_ good."

"I thought you were cheering for him?" Understanding dawned upon her, and she grinned. "Are you jealous because he managed to beat Suki even though you got owned?"

"I'm not jealous." He scowled and stalked off.

Inside the dojo the Kyoshi Warriors resumed their regular training. Lee stepped out, and he and Katara ambled back into town. He was smiling. "I saw the spar. You were really good," she complimented.

"Thank you."

"Where did you learn?" She was beginning to suspect that Lee was involved with the Earth Army. Omashu, his hometown, was where the resistance was based after all, he'd said so himself. And he was wanted by the Fire Nation to the point they had chased him down to the South Pole. Could it be that Lee was a seasoned soldier? His fighting skills certainly suggested it. And there were other little things, like the stiffness in his posture and the shadow that sometimes fell over his face, they were all things she'd seen in the warriors of her tribe when they came back after a campaign.

"I was taught the basics by the best swordsman in the F– a master swordsman when I was younger. The rest of it is self-taught."

If he was involved in the Earth Army, why did he keep it a secret? Katara wondered. It wasn't like they were going to cast him out of the group, on the contrary, a connection with the Army would be really helpful. Maybe he was a deserter? She assessed him out of the corner of her eye. He didn't seem the type, but it would explain some things.

"You could learn, you know," he said, distracting her from her thoughts.

"Learn what?"

"A weapon."

She opened her mouth, then closed it, surprised. It wasn't like women were forbidden from learning weapons in her tribe. She'd just… never really found the occasion. She'd always thought the way Sokka wasted away the morning battling imaginary monsters with cries of "Hiyaaaaah!" was a bit silly and selfish since there was so much to be done around the village. And when she did have some free time, the pull of waterbending was too strong to consider doing anything else.

Plus, benders were supposed to fight with their element, not regular weapons. "But I'm a bender."

"Not yet." At her offended look, he lifted his hands in surrender. "What I mean is… uh… I know you'll become a very powerful bender in time." He scratched the back of his head. "But right now, you're… You would be defenseless against a Fire Nation soldier. And even master benders have moments when they can't bend, like, what if you don't have any water, or you want to keep your bending a secret?" His golden eyes were honest. "It looks like we'll be staying here for a few days, and there's a perfectly good dojo. You could ask Suki to teach you the basics of self-defense, at least."

They were getting closer to the village, and in the distance Katara heard Aang's carefree laughter, followed by girlish giggling. "What about Aang?"

"What about him?"

"He's a bender too. Shouldn't he learn as well?"

"Um, Aang is… His staff isn't just a tool for airbending, he knows how to use it as a regular weapon too. My guess is he can also fight without it."

She gave it some thought. It wasn't like she didn't _want_ to learn a weapon but… It didn't feel right. She'd worked so hard to learn the few waterbending moves she knew, and if she switched to something else now it would be like giving up. Plus, she wasn't super enthusiastic about spending time with Suki. "I see where you're coming from, but I think I'd rather work on my bending for now."

Lee shrugged and gave her a little smile. "It was just an idea."

* * *

She was practicing with a bowl of water in her room, and actually making some progress, when Aang dropped by. "Hey Katara, remember how the Unagi almost got me yesterday?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah?"

"Well, I'm going to go ride it now. It's going to be real dangerous."

She twisted the water to form a coil. "Good."

"You're not going to stop me?"

Great. So first he went off with his adoring fangirls and ignored her completely, and now he wanted her attention. Fat chance. She was finally succeeding in getting the water to move as she wanted. "Nope. Have fun."

"I will," he challenged.

"Great."

"I know it's great."

"I'm glad you know."

"I'm glad you're glad."

"Good!"

"Fine!" He slammed the door and left.

Five minutes later her anger was replaced with worry. Ride the ugly giant serpent that shot water out of its mouth and had teeth longer than she was tall? Even if Aang was childish sometimes, that was downright stupid. So of course she went to check up on him and of course when she arrived he was about to get eaten by the titanic sea snake; and in fact he would have been, if she hadn't grabbed him fast enough and propelled them both towards the shore with the strongest waterbending push she'd ever managed in her life.

The adrenaline slowly wore off, and she was able to bend the water out of his mouth the same way she'd twisted the coil of water from the bowl earlier. Aang coughed and started breathing normally, much to her relief, though he wouldn't wake up. Katara laid him down on his side and took off her soggy parka and pants – the water had been freezing, she didn't understand how he could swim in only his underwear.

She fussed while she waited for him to regain consciousness, checking his pulse, listening to his breathing. She wanted to go back to the village and ask for help, but she couldn't leave Aang behind and she didn't think she could carry him. She decided to wait and in the meantime tried to bend the water out of her clothes.

She'd thrown her dry parka over Aang to keep him warm when she heard the sound of someone running. It was Lee. "What happened? Some girls in the village said Aang had gone to ride the Unagi."

"Yeah." She looked down at their bald friend, who was finally beginning to stir.

Lee slapped his hand over his own face with a splat sound. "I can't believe him." He knelt down next to Aang and patted his cheek. "Come on, kid, wake up."

"Five more minutes," Aang mumbled, snuggling into Katara's parka.

She sighed and stood up. The scare with the Unagi had taken everything out of her. She left Lee to take care of Aang – for once, she didn't want to be the one to deal with him.

That evening, at dinner, Sokka revealed he'd spent the day training with the Kyoshi Warriors. Katara was surprised that her brother had gotten over his manly pride enough to beg for a lesson. It still didn't change her own stance on the matter, though.

Aang was unusually silent, shooting furtive glances at Lee who sat on the opposite side of the table. The older boy gave him a meaningful look; Aang gulped and turned towards Katara. He bowed.

"I want to apologize for earlier, Katara. It was really irresponsible of me to go ride the Unagi alone and I'm grateful that you saved my life."

The apology was genuine and warmed her heart, so she apologized too and promised to spend time with him and his new friends the next day. This made him really happy, and for the duration of the meal he chattered excitedly about all the plans he had in store for her. Katara smiled, looking forwards to it.

The next morning she woke up gasping, but she didn't remember what the nightmare had been about. There had been the same scorching blue as that night they spent at the Temple, but the specifics escaped her.

 _Must be the Unagi,_ she thought, and promptly forgot about it.

She never got to do any of those fun things Aang had planned, because the next morning, the Fire Nation attacked.


	4. Problems at Omashu

**Chapter Four: Problems at Omashu**

* * *

During breakfast, Suki burst into the room, clad in her warrior's uniform. "You have to leave! The Fire Nation is here!"

They were all on their feet in a flash. "What?" Lee blurted. "But-"

"A ship was just spotted. They're only a few minutes away! You have to go!"

"But they shouldn't even know Aang's returned!" Lee insisted. "We should have been safe for a few more days, at least!" Even as he spoke he reached for his bag and his swords, which were lying in a corner of the room.

"I won't run away," Aang stated. "I can't leave you to fight alone."

Suki growled in exasperation. "Listen. Kyoshi can defend itself. But if they capture you, everything's over."

"I won't run away," he repeated, and then, quietly, "not again."

Katara was scared. She didn't want to face the Fire Nation. She wanted to jump on Appa and flee as fast as possible in the opposite direction, but Aang was right. They couldn't just leave Kyoshi to the mercy (or lack thereof) of the tyrants. Still, what could she do? Sokka had his club and his boomerang, Lee his swords and Aang his airbending, but if she came face to face with a soldier, she'd be helpless. She wished she'd listened to Lee and taken at least one lesson in self-defense.

"Maybe it's not Aang they're after," Lee was saying. "Kyoshi is still neutral ground. Maybe they're not looking for conflict. Let's hide before deciding what to do."

Suki snorted. "And maybe I'm a giant sheep-bunny."

"No, it's possible," Lee pressed. "Sokka, take Aang and Katara and find a place to hide." The stark commanding tone was so different from his usual awkward demeanor that they found themselves obeying automatically.

She only thought to protest when she was already by the door. "What about you?"

Lee reached into his pack and placed his blue theater mask over his face. It was a practiced motion, like when he unsheathed his swords; and it turned him into a completely different person. In the place of Lee now stood a stranger with a grinning mask made of edges and shadow. "I'll see if I can find out why they're here." Even his voice sounded rougher, harsher.

The stranger jumped out the window, disappearing from sight.

There was no need for all the subterfuge. The Fire Nation themselves announced what they were looking for, the words carrying all the way through the village to Appa's barn, where Katara, Aang and Sokka were hiding. "Come out, Avatar, or we'll burn this pathetic backwater village to the ground!"

"I'm going," Aang declared, snapping his glider open.

Sokka grabbed his boomerang and followed him. "Stay here, Katara."

Yeah, right. As soon as Sokka was gone she tip toed her way down the shadowed streets towards the front of the village. Her heart was in her throat the whole time. _I should have taken a canteen of water._ Even if she was an awful bender, at least she would have _something_.

Luck was on her side and she didn't come across anyone. She ducked behind a wall, observing the situation unfolding in the middle of the main road. A group of soldiers surrounded the village elder. One of them was mounted on an animal Katara had never seen before – it was dark and intimidating and it had horns. "There is no Avatar here!" the elder was saying. "Kyoshi island has been neutral for a century, we want no part in your war. Begone!"

The man riding the creature shot a ball of fire from his fist that passed an inch from the elder's head. "Don't lie, earth scum. We know he's here. Start torching the houses!"

A clear voice sounded out, defiant. "I'm the one you're after!" All heads swerved towards Aang, who stood at the end of the road underneath the majestic statue of Kyoshi, glider in hand.

That was when a shadow jumped from one of the roofs and fell on the leader, swords raised like fangs.

The man reacted in time, barely throwing himself out of the way. Instead, the figure impaled his animal, the swords sliding into its body all the way to the hilt. The animal roared in pain before collapsing. Lee – though he hardly looked like the boy she knew, hunched on the corpse like gargoyle, his mask and clothes speckled with the animal's blood – slowly rose and faced the Fire Nation man, shaking the blood on his swords away with a sharp flick of his wrists.

"The Blue Spirit," the man spat. "Men, go after the Avatar. I will take care of this nuisance."

It was pandemonium. Kyoshi warriors jumped out left and right to meet the soldiers and fire roared and weapons clanged. In the middle of it Lee and the leader faced off. The man was a powerful and experienced firebender but Lee held his own, blocking some blasts with his swords when he wasn't fast enough to dodge them. He was faring better than he did against Suki; rather than rushing in with an explosion of motion, he was almost methodical in the way he advanced on the bender, step by relentless step. Katara watched with terrified fascination, trying not to flinch every time the flames came close enough to singe his clothes.

She finally managed to tear her eyes away to take in the larger picture. There were maybe fifteen or so Kyoshi warriors to defend the small village, and about an equal number of soldiers, so they were evenly matched. Katara couldn't see this ending without people dying and homes being destroyed, one way or the other. Already houses were burning and she heard a man cry in pain. Aang didn't seem to know what to do. He was fighting, or rather, avoiding the fight as airbenders did, dodging and knocking them out as softly as possible. By the panicked look he shot at the houses it was obvious he'd also realized it wouldn't end well.

It would be best to flee. Now that Aang had their attention, the soldiers would follow and leave the village alone.

She ran as fast as she could back to the barn, side-stepping the fights she stumbled into on the way. Appa bellowed when he saw her and shifted restlessly. Katara calmed him down with urgent whispers. She checked the saddle – good thing she'd packed supplies in case something exactly like this happened – before climbing onto Appa's head. "Yip Yip!"

She directed him to float over the battlefield. "Aang! Sokka! Lee! We have to leave!"

"Don't let the Avatar escape!"

She spotted her brother in a side road wrestling with one of the soldiers, and landed Appa close to them. Sokka managed to head butt his opponent, making him stagger back. While the soldier recovered Sokka clambered onto the flying bison. "Aang!" she called. The boy dodged out of the way of a fireball, opened his glider and flew over to them. They took off.

"Where's Lee?"

"Over there!" Sokka pointed.

She steered Appa to hover over Lee's fight with the leader. "Lee! Come on, we have to leave!" He seemed reluctant to abandon his fight, but after some urging from Sokka and Aang, he disengaged and ran towards a different soldier, ducking under a fire blast, then jumping and using the soldier's shoulders as a spring board to launch himself to the roofs. From there he sheathed his swords behind his back, took a run up and leaped off. Aang held out his staff and Lee barely managed to grasp the end of it, precariously hanging off the side of the saddle like a fish from a line.

Appa rose, taking them out of range of any fire attacks. "Back to the ship!" the commander yelled. "Don't lose sight of them!"

As they flew over the bay, Aang dove into the sea to wrestle the Unagi. She thought he was suicidal at first, but he somehow managed to control the serpent by grabbing onto its giant whiskers like reins, forcing it to spray a jet of water over the village that extinguished the fires.

As far as daring escapes went, Katara felt it was a pretty impressive one.

* * *

"How did they know I was back?" Aang wondered once they'd all calmed down enough from the battle to compare notes. "This is the first village we've been in since I woke up, and we were only there for two days."

"Well, you know what they say, news run faster than a polar leopard," said Sokka. "Though it is a bit strange."

"Aang, I know you enjoy being the Avatar," Katara added, twisting back on Appa's head so she could see them. "But I think we should be more careful about your identity from now on."

"I guess. I don't want what happened at Kyoshi to happen again." He glanced towards the island, now just a shadow on the horizon. Katara refrained from saying _I told you so,_ since they'd already made up yesterday and there was no point in extending the argument. Still, she really, really wanted to.

Lee sat cross-legged in his own corner of the saddle. He'd put his mask away and had an expression like he'd swallowed something sour. "Lee, are you alright? Your clothes are burned." And covered in blood, but she didn't mention that. "Did the firebender get you?"

He shook his head. Katara contemplated him quietly, remembering how he rose from the carcass of the komodo rhino like something out of a nightmare. She had trouble reconciling that image with the frail, thin boy she'd nursed back to health in the South Pole.

"Sooooo..." Sokka siddled up next to him and poked him in the ribs. "What's this Blue Spirit thing everybody's been going on about, hm?"

Lee stiffened. "Nothing."

"Riiiiight," Sokka drawled. "'Cuz 'nothing' is why that nasty fire dude was out for your guts."

"It's a long story."

"We're listening," her brother replied, crossing his arms behind his head and giving Lee a lazy grin.

Katara turned so she was sitting backwards on Appa's head and didn't have to twist her neck to see the saddle. Lee stared at his friends' expectant faces. "It really is a long story," he squeaked.

Sensing his mild panic attack, Katara cut in. "We know you have things in your past that you don't want to talk about. Sokka's just being nosy."

"Don't pretend that you're not curious too!"

"The point is, you don't have to tell us, if you don't want to..." she smiled at him. "Though it would be nice if you did."

Lee was fiddling with his shoes, squinting at the leathery material like it held the secrets of the universe. "Okay." He swallowed hard. "While I was in the Earth Kingdom, I sabotaged a Fire Nation operation there. I did that as the Blue Spirit - I've been doing stuff like that for a while, actually. It's why they put a price on my head."

Sokka whistled appreciatively. "So you're part of the Earth Army, or what?"

"Not exactly. It's more of a... a secret organization seeking to overthrow the Fire Lord. I've helped the Earth Army, but those guys don't like me much." He sighed heavily. "The guy who attacked the island? That's Zhao. He's a Captain in the Fire Nation navy, but he's supposed to have died more than a month ago. I'm not sure how he learned that Aang was at Kyoshi." They digested this information silently while Lee continued frowning at his shoes. "There are so many things... So many more important things I need to tell you, but..." His fingers curled anxiously, and he finally looked up, his eyes locking with Katara's. "I'm not sure..."

Katara was disarmed by the honesty and helplessness she saw in his eyes. "There's no rush. You can tell us when you're ready." Lee looked down again, his brow furrowed.

"Tell us about Omashu!" Aang exclaimed. "Does the mail delivery system still work?"

He relaxed at the new topic. "Yeah, it does."

"Cool! Katara, we have to go there! It'll only take a day, and then I promise we'll go to the North Pole."

She smiled. "Sure, Aang. Lee said he wanted to make a stop there as well."

It took them a good four hours to reach the mainland, and from there it was a three-day flight to Omashu over forests and mountain ranges. They struck a routine: get up, drink Lee's breakfast tea and have some food, then they'd laze about for an hour or two (Katara practiced waterbending) before getting back on Appa and flying for the rest of the morning. They'd take another break to have lunch, explore the area a bit and go swimming if there was a river (Sokka napped) then another afternoon flight. It was a bit boring in the air, but Aang knew lots of Air Nomad games to keep them entertained. Katara's favorite was one where you sat in a circle and put one palm over the person's sitting to your left, and the other palm under the person's sitting to your right, and then moved one of them quickly to sandwich the hand of that person between your palms. Lee sucked at it.

Omashu was a huge city that sat like a king between two peaks, surrounded by a chasm so deep and abrupt it looked like it had been carved into the earth (which could be what literally happened, Katara thought after some consideration). Lee told them that the only way to cross the chasm, other than by flying bison, was the single bridge that led directly to the gates of the city. "If the Fire Nation were to attack, the king of Omashu would destroy the bridge with earthbending, and no one would be able to cross."

It was nearing evening by the time they came in view of the city, so they decided to set up camp in the mountains rather than try to enter the city after dark. Katara and Lee organized the packs while Aang took care of Appa and Sokka went to look for firewood. When he came back, Lee started their small campfire and placed his kettle over it to make tea. Katara handed out dried food to everyone. Kyoshi had been generous, so they wouldn't have to worry about running out of supplies for another week at least.

Her hunger satisfied, she moved away from the fire and settled against Appa's side to practice waterbending for the rest of the evening. She needed some time alone to think. It was obvious that now that the Fire Nation knew Aang had awakened, their trip was going to be harder than she originally thought. Even if they headed straight to the North Pole from Omashu, they'd still need to make a few stops along the way, probably in territories occupied by the Fire Nation. As long as they didn't broadcast Aang's presence, it should be fine, she reasoned. She made circles over her bowl with her index finger, trying to get the water to spin like a mini-whirlpool.

That night she had the same nightmare again. She was standing in a courtyard, and there was fire. Lots of fire. The air was heavy with vapor and heat, so thick she almost couldn't breathe, and the sky was red like blood. Then the blue lightning was zipping towards her, and she wasn't ready, she couldn't move fast enough - it impacted on her chest, and through the sudden, blinding pain she heard Lee's voice, twisted in an anguished scream: "No!" She felt her body crumpling, her bones shaking like they wanted to shatter out of her body. She couldn't see anything. She wanted to scream, but no sound was leaving her throat. "No! Katara!"

"Katara! Katara, wake up!"

Her eyes flew open. She sat up, clutching her tunic over her sternum and gasping for air. For a terrible moment her heart burned, but after a few seconds the pain subsided like it had never been there. She took deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"Are you okay?" Lee whispered in the darkness.

She looked up. He was crouching next to her, his hand rubbing soothing circles on her back, his eyes worried.

"Yeah," she whispered back. "Yeah, sorry, it was just a nightmare. Did I wake you up?" She looked around. Their campfire had dwindled down to orange embers. Sokka and Aang hadn't stirred from their sleeping bags, their forms rising and falling with their breathing. Sokka was snoring lightly.

"I was already awake," Lee assured. "Do you, uh... Want to talk about it?"

"No, it's fine." It was a stupid dream, it wasn't like it was anything important. "I think I'll just go back to sleep."

"Okay." He stood up and headed back to his sleeping bag. "Goodnight," he whispered.

"Goodnight."

Despite her determination to ignore the dream, sleep didn't come easily. The sky was already lightening to the east by the time Katara finally managed to close her eyes.

* * *

Riding Appa would give away the Avatar's presence in Omashu, so the following morning, they decided to leave the bison to roam the mountains and enter the city via bridge instead.

Aang donned a disguise which consisted of a mustache and hair made of Appa's fur. Lee eyed him critically. "I don't think that's going to work."

Aang came right up to Lee and poked him in the chest. "Don't underestimate your elders, young whipper-snapper!" he said in an old man voice. "It'll be easy as pie!" No one was convinced, but they went along with it, since they figured that the worst thing that could happen would be to be denied entry.

Then Aang, much to their disbelief, introduced himself to the gate guards as "Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis, the Third," and threatened to bend the guard over his knee "and paddle your backside." Sokka's eyes bulged, Katara squeaked, and Lee slapped his hand over his face and groaned.

"Calm down, old timer. Who're they?" the unsympathetic guard asked, pointing at Aang's friends.

"Those... Are my grandkids!"

The man stared at them hard. Sokka and Katara smiled while Lee ducked his head, his bangs hiding his eyes. "Really? I believe those two being related, but him?"

"Now listen here, young man!" Aang started. "He's-"

"Her fiance," Lee interrupted, taking Katara's hand. She jumped. Lee's palm was warm and sweaty, but his voice was steady. "We aren't married yet, but Bonzu calls me his grandson."

"Hm. I swear they get younger and younger every year." The guard rubbed his beard pensively. "Alright, make sure your grandfather doesn't get into trouble. Enjoy Omashu!" Two other guards opened the set of triple doors with an impressive display of earthbending. Lee continued holding her hand as they walked, until the gates slammed shut behind them, at which point he quickly dropped it.

"I can't believe that worked," he said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, looking everywhere but at her.

Katara rubbed her hand on her dress, her ears warm. "Why didn't you just tell them you were born here?"

Sokka squinted suspiciously at him. "If you start getting any ideas-"

Lee sputtered. "I'm not- but Aang had already said-"

They were distracted when Aang called their attention to the city's mail delivery system, a series of slides and chutes that criss-crossed over the surface of the pyramid that was Omashu. Katara had to admit, it looked really fun, a bit like penguin-sledding at the South Pole, except with steeper and bigger slopes. She was excited to try it. Lee acted as their guide while they climbed their way through the narrow streets and stairways to the top of the city, showing them popular spots and explaining the rules and customs of his hometown.

However, when they had almost reached their destination, he said he wouldn't be joining them in their crazy cart-riding stunt. "I haven't been here in months. I have some things to take care of."

She supposed that made sense. Omashu was his birthplace, after all. Though he didn't seem particularly happy to be back. He didn't seem unhappy either. By what he'd told them, he must have left the city a long time ago - perhaps he no longer felt any attachment to it. He'd never mentioned any family or friends.

"Aw, Lee, it'll be fun!" Aang whined.

The older boy shot him a severe look. "Just... Try not to get in trouble. They'll take you to the King and he's... weird. I'll meet you in three hours by the sculpture I showed you earlier."

* * *

It really _was_ like penguin-sledding. But a hundred times more terrifying.

* * *

They ended their heart-stopping free-fall by landing on a merchant's cart, sending pieces of wood and cabbage flying everywhere. Luckily, no one had been near the stand to be splattered like a mosquito.

As the dust settled and Katara coughed what seemed like all the bricks in the city out of her lungs, she looked around to identify what kind of place they'd ended up in. It looked like an open-air market. It was full of people walking around and talking, or at least, people who had been walking around until their cart had had shattered reality and frozen time, leaving everyone gaping with one foot lifted in the air, halfway through completing a step.

A familiar voice broke the stunned silence. "I can't believe this. I leave you three alone for _ten minutes_ -"

"Lee?" Sokka asked as he clambered his way out of the cart. Aang jumped over the mess and twirled, airbending the dust out of his clothes.

Lee peeled away from a group of young men standing in a corner and approached, stepping around the cabbages and pieces of wood strewn on the floor. He started ushering them towards a side street. "You guys have to hide before the guards get here." Just as he finished the sentence, men with the green and brown uniform of the Omashu military poured into the market.

"Oops?" Aang offered.

* * *

The four of them were marched through the city to the palace sitting at the very top of the tallest pyramid. It was more of a fortress than a palace, with high walls and menacing towers leaning out over the city. They were led through a giant door operated by earthbenders into a long, dark corridor that opened up to the throne room. It was a cavernous space with no windows, illuminated solely by torches. The elderly king sat at the back of the room in a throne made of softly-glowing gems.

The soldiers kicked the back of their knees to make them kneel in front of the throne.

"First Kyoshi, now Omashu... And there was that time with the Yu Yan, and Ba Sing Se, and the Sun Warriors..." Lee muttered to himself. "Is there a place where you haven't been captured?" He squinted at the king. "And now we get to see His Crazyness... This is great... So great..."

"What have we here?" the king asked.

"These juveniles were arrested for vandalism, travelling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages," the soldier announced.

The cabbage merchant, who had followed them to the castle, angrily raised his fist. "Off with their heads! One for each head of cabbage!"

"Silence!" the guard ordered. "Only the king can pass out judgement."

"Lee didn't do anything," Katara felt compelled to say.

"He was still travelling under false pretenses," the man argued. "What is your judgement, Sire?"

The king strained his eyes to look at each of them closely. She tried to smile and seem innocent, hoping he'd let them off. They hadn't done anything truly bad after all, except destroying a few chutes here and there, but the guards were earthbenders, right? It couldn't be too hard to fix. The king spent a lot of time staring at Aang, but when his eyes moved to Lee, he leaned back in surprise. "Well, well! If it isn't mister Sunshine!"

"Lee," Lee said, placing emphasis on the word. "My name is Lee."

The king laughed, his cackles degenerating into loud snorts. "You must mean your name is-"

"Lee!"

"Ghost-lee!" He stared at the boy expectantly, but Lee's expression was stony.

Katara decided the old man was crazy, plain and simple. Instead of punishing them, he ordered his servants to throw them a feast. As they were taken to the dining room, she slowed down to walk next to Lee. "Do you know the king?"

He gave a sigh that seemed to deflate his whole body like a balloon. "Yes."

"Isn't he a bit..." she made circles next to her temple with her index finger.

"You have no idea." Under his breath, he added, "At least we get a meal out of it this time."

The dining room was as large as the throne room, though it had better illumination. The four of them sat awkwardly at one end of the table while the king sat opposite. Plates and plates of food were brought out and set between them. Katara was hungry, but the atmosphere was so strange and uncomfortable she didn't dare touch anything. The king kept staring at them from the other end of the table like he was trying to peel their faces away with his large, bulging, asymmetric, glassy-green eyes. Lee just sighed and started helping himself to food. After a moment of indecision, she followed his lead, but only taking from the same plates he'd chosen.

"This chicken is really spicy!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh, yes. We had lots of chili left over from when the Fire Nation invaded us," the king explained.

Lee choked on his chicken. Sokka dropped his fork. "The Fire Nation invaded Omashu?"

"You didn't know?" the king smiled. "I'm surprised your friend didn't tell you."

Katara, Sokka and Aang all turned towards Lee, who was still choking. "They didn't _invade,_ " he strained once he finally managed to swallow. "They came to propose an _alliance._ The spices were a _peace_ offering."

Sokka dropped his other fork. "The Fire Nation tried to ally with Omashu?"

"I keep forgetting that part," mused the king.

Lee made an inarticulate sound of incredulity.

"You see," the king whispered loudly, leaning forwards. "This is a secret, but the Fire Nation royal family was secretly divided. The Fire Prince secretly wanted the Fire Lord to lose the war. He secretly came to Omashu to get in contact - secretly - with the Earth Army. The Prince's name was secretly Zuko."

Aang's eyes widened. "What happened?"

The king suddenly stabbed the vegetables on his plate with his knife. They all flinched, except Lee, who seemed to be brooding. "He vanished one day," he said in a normal voice. "Nobody knows why. According to my left foot, the Prince was captured by some Earth Kingdom rebel group and put to death. But the right thumb says his father realized what he was doing and had him-" the king lowered his voice again and leaned forward, his eyes wide and delighted, "Assassinated."

"Uh... What does your brain say?" Katara asked.

The king let out a short burst of his obnoxious snorting laughter. "Well, when I woke up this morning my brain agreed with the right thumb," he said. "But now it's realized the prince faked his own death, got a boring name and decided to adopt three kids and go sightseeing. I hope you like your chicken skinless," he told Aang.

"Thanks, but I don't eat meat," Aang replied automatically, still shocked by the revelation. "So, you're saying... there's a faction in the Fire Nation that wants to end the war? To dethrone the Fire Lord?"

"Secretly," the king reminded him.

Katara sat back, trying to absorb it. And found that she couldn't. She didn't believe it. There was no way that those-those monsters who killed her mother-

The king suddenly threw a piece of chicken at Aang, and Aang, on reflex, caught it with airbending. "There's an airbender in our presence, and not just any airbender," the old man gestured. "The Avatar!"

They gulped.

For a reason unknown to everyone, perhaps even himself, the king announced he wanted to test the Avatar, and Aang would have to face three deadly challenges the next day. The guards escorted them through dark and empty corridors to the newly-refurbished-chamber-that-was-once-bad. Katara was quite nervous. So were Sokka and especially Aang. Lee, however, just seemed resigned.

Katara, Sokka and Aang were thrown inside the chamber. She only counted three beds, and whipped her head back, to find Lee was being stopped from entering by the guards. "What are you doing?" she asked, alarmed.

"The king has ordered him to be taken elsewhere," one of the guards explained, yanking him back by his wrists.

"You can't separate us!" she cried, scrambling up and running to the gap in the wall. But the earthbenders were already closing it, and she wouldn't make it in time.

"Don't worry," Lee reassured through the rapidly shrinking gap. "The old man is completely cuckoo, but he won't hurt me."

The wall finished closing with a loud bam that echoed in the silence of the room.


	5. The Fire Prince

**Chapter 5: The Fire Prince**

* * *

Zuko pondered his situation while he was walked through the corridors.

He'd wanted to avoid Bumi if he could help it - not only to keep the fact that he was alive a secret, but also because the crazy king was frustrating to deal with, and Zuko had things to _do -_ but now that he was here, he might as well get some questions answered. He'd been out of the loop since his brief holiday in the South Pole and he needed to catch up on news of the war. Especially an update on the situation at the North Pole, he didn't want to head in there blind. And Zhao. Last he'd heard, Zhao had been taken care of.

The room he was brought to was huge, circular, and much like the rest of the fortress the sole illumination came from torches and glowing crystals embedded in the walls. Unlike the other rooms, though, it was completely empty. The ground was made of packed earth, and the walls seemed to be carved into the rock, rather than built up with bricks. It looked more like a natural cave than a man-made structure.

Bumi waited there, clad in his layered green robe and ridiculous hat. Zuko had long ago given up on figuring out what those long things coming out of it were supposed to be. Feathers? Horns?

"Leave us," Bumi said to his guards, gesturing imperiously with one ring-covered hand. The guards obeyed, disappearing down the corridor that led to the room. Once they were alone, he looked Lee up and down. "Well, mister Ghostly, you look thin. Did you not like spiritual papaya?"

Zuko eyed him warily. He was sure that Bumi played up his insanity sometimes to mess with people, but there was no denying that the old king wasn't fully right in the head. "I'm fine," he replied.

"You had me fooled with your, woo!" Bumi waved his fingers like he was performing magic, grinning widely, before tucking his hands in his sleeves and returning to a proper posture. "The right thumb was quite convinced your father had you killed."

"He almost succeeded," Zuko admitted. "I would like it if people kept believing that for a while longer. How is the 41st?"

"Your minions are as lively as ever, from what I hear. Spying, sabotaging and all that."

"Has the messenger I sent to the Northern Water Tribe returned yet?"

"Let's not talk about boring stuff!" Bumi shouted, and launched a rock.

Zuko barely dodged in time. "Hey!" Another boulder, much bigger this time, came flying at him. He flattened himself to the ground as it sailed over his head, ruffling his hair. He sprang up, eyes wide. "Crazy old man, this is serious! We need to talk about this!"

Bumi slammed down his foot, and the ground under Zuko rose and launched him at the wall of the cavern. He managed to twist his body around and stop the impact with his hands, but still smacked his face into the wall. Hard. "Forget all those diplomatic thingies. Shouldn't you be more worried about the enemy in front of you?" Bumi tore his robe away to reveal his earthbending garbs underneath and cackled with glee.

Zuko slid to the floor and landed on his feet. "What about my uncle-" the king made a tearing and pulling motion with his hands. The wall behind Zuko peeled away and started to fall on him like a giant domino piece. He rolled to safety, the chunk of earth splattering on the ground and lifting up a cloud of dust. "I don't have time for this! Did uncle Iroh send-" A slab of rock rose up and he jumped away, only to collide with another slab that had materialized behind him. _Ow,_ he thought, dazed. Bumi proceeded to smack him around with rocks like he was playing a game of airball.

Finally Bumi squeezed him between two slabs that wrapped around his body like a cocoon, with only his head sticking out. The king's outstretched hand slowly closed into a fist. "If you don't do anything, you're going to get cru-ushed," he sang.

Zuko shook his head out, beyond frustrated at this point. Those smacks had really hurt. As the earth encasing him contracted, the last thread of his patience snapped.

The lunatic wanted a fight? He got himself a fucking fight.

His prison of rock shattered outwards as Zuko roared and bright flames spiraled out from his body. Fire burst from his mouth like a dragon's and spiraled upwards. After the weeks he'd spent suppressing his bending, he felt the eruption of power in every bone, in every vein and nerve ending. It felt so _good._

"That's more like it," Bumi approved. Zuko rose high in the air with a fire-assisted jump and flipped forwards, bringing down a giant whip of fire on Bumi. The king blocked it with a curved wall which cracked under the fire, but held. Bumi kicked his wall up, but Zuko just punched through it, delighting in the feeling of the rock crumbling under his fire.

Bumi launched a relentless assault, manipulating the terrain in a massive scale to prevent him from closing in. Zuko couldn't match in fire output the sheer volume of earth that the old king could command, but he was faster, and he had better reflexes and mobility. And he also was one of the most powerful masters of his element, even if he hadn't used it in a while; he forced Bumi into the defensive with wide, sweeping chains of flames and short quick bursts to interrupt his momentum. His fire was wild and destructive, and he reveled in it, losing himself in the adrenaline. He hadn't bent against such a challenging opponent in so long.

But like in the fight with Suki, he started losing steam. He felt the exhilaration simmering down, the chi gradually withdrawing from his limbs, the familiar exhaustion settling in. "Out of breath already?" Bumi taunted. "You can't neglect your aerobic exercise if you plan to be the Avatar's firebending teacher." Zuko grunted as a spike of rock caught him in the stomach, throwing him back.

He got back to his feet and breathed in, and out, trying to temper his inner fire into something more stable that wouldn't burn him out. He abandoned the mindless charge and focused instead on precision, on paying attention to his opponent, on finding the cracks in Bumi's defense. Fire whooshed and earth rumbled as the fight dragged on, occasionally punctuated by Zuko's grunts and Bumi's hoots of laughter.

It ended with Zuko sprawled on his back, staring blankly at the boulder hovering inches above his nose. He was too busy trying to get air in his lungs to even try to roll away. Maybe Bumi was right. He really needed to work on his endurance. He blamed it on scarce meals and the illness he'd sustained at the Pole.

Bumi moved the boulder horizontally before dropping it right next to Zuko. "Well, that was fun," he commented in between pants.

"You... are... nuts," Zuko gasped. He lifted his head a fraction. The king had plopped down to a cross-legged sitting position, and was tugging his beard in front of his face, inspecting it with crossed eyes. The tip of it was singed, the ends blackened and curled. Zuko dropped his head.

"I think I need a trim!" Bumi declared. "But sleep first. It's past my bedtime." He stood to leave.

Zuko scrambled after him. "Wait, you still haven't answered my questions, has the Northern tribe replied?"

Bumi lifted a didactic finger. "I don't do business past my bedtime." He strolled down the corridor.

A low growl built in Zuko's throat. He quickened his pace to catch up. "Okay. Just one thing. In Kyoshi, we were ambushed by Zhao. How is he still alive? He was supposed to get executed."

"Hm... Zhao... Let's see..." Bumi looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully before smashing his fist on his open palm. "Ah, yes! I remember. Apparently, the Fire Loser decided to spare him in the last second. Instead, he banished him. He said that Zhao would only be allowed back in the Fire Nation if he captured the Avatar."

Zuko stopped dead in his tracks. "What?"

"Yeah, I don't get it either. Some honor thing," Bumi said.

He didn't even know how to react. Zhao... banished... what? A flash of memory passed in front of his eyes.

 _I have hundreds of war ships under my command and you? You're just a banished prince. No home, no allies. You should have chosen to accept your failure; you're a disgrace._

Zuko started snickering.

"Hm?" Bumi inquired.

He breathlessly held up one hand. "Just... just give me... a minute..." He tried to stop laughing, but couldn't. "Oh, this is too good..."

"And they say I'm crazy," the king mused. "Here, you can have this room." He stomped his foot and a door opened in the wall. Zuko made his way over to it, still chuckling to himself.

He tried to go to sleep early, but every few minutes he'd remember again and lift his sheets to smother his giggles.

* * *

Unfortunately, his amusement at Zhao's expense wasn't enough to chase away the nightmares later in the night. He found himself, once again, in the royal courtyard, facing his mad sister as lightning gathered around her and her eyes shifted to his right. Time seemed to slow down. Her smirk widened and she thrust forward, the lightning shooting out of her fingers like a deadly spear aimed at something _that was not him_.

His whole body went cold at once with realization and horror. _No._ He knew the end of the dream, he knew nothing he did would change it, but he still lunged for the lightning as desperately as he had the first time, stretching all his body to reach it, _please reach it!_ It zoomed past his fingertips, and he tried to bend it, to pull it towards himself even if it was just a few degrees, but it was too fast and powerful and continued its arrow-straight trajectory towards Katara's heart.

He knew he was screaming, he could feel it tearing his chest apart. The world around him had turned grey and become muted, like he'd gone deaf and colorblind at the same time. He ran towards Katara, who was staring down in shock at the bloody hole beneath her collarbone. She lifted her gaze and their eyes met, wide and petrified, before she staggered forwards and started to fall.

She was in his arms. "No! Katara!" he was gasping, he was sobbing, he couldn't- not again- He scrambled for the pouch at her hip, uncapped it, dumped the water on her hand. He gripped her wrist and placed it over her wound. "Heal it, please-"

Her wet hand twitched in his. Hope bloomed in his chest, and he relaxed his grip so she could move. But there was no healing glow. Instead, Katara's hand lifted towards his face. For one single moment, her eyes were blue and bright. Moon-bright, like her smirk during their fight at the North Pole. Like the glacial fury when he showed up at the Western Air Temple. Like the bone-deep understanding when she touched his soul under the catacombs. She touched him the same way now, fingertips over shattered skin, and Zuko trembled. The understanding in Katara's eyes morphed into realization. Then, slowly, her eyelids lowered. Her hand fell to her side, her fingers leaving trails of blood and water on his face. One last convulsion shook her body and she was still.

Zuko opened his eyes in his bed, in the darkness of Bumi's palace. His cheek felt wet, the phantom of Katara's hand still resting on it. He stared blankly at the ceiling while his memories provided in merciless detail the continuation of his nightmare. Azula's taunts (" _Oh, did you actually care about the little water peasant?"_ ), the sickening crack of his sister's neck between his hands.

He breathed in, and out. It'd be fine. She was alive again, they all were, he'd seen them just a few hours ago at dinner. They were fine. There was still almost a year left until the comet. They were all alive.

He got up from his bed and started pacing, feeling the urge to see them, just to _check_ , but he couldn't escape his room without blasting the wall apart and that would give away his firebending. In the end, he sat cross-legged on the floor for a session of meditation until the knot at his throat eased and he managed to chase away the ghosts of his memories with practical thoughts.

He'd need to talk to Gazo before leaving Omashu. Not only about the North Pole, he also needed to hear what explanation his father had given for his 'death' to the nobles in the capital city. No doubt, as Bumi had said, he'd blamed the Earth Kingdom army. Zuko had amassed too much support since his trip back in time for his father to openly admit to an assassination without causing a riot. And if his supporters believed that the Earth Kingdom was responsible, they would stop opposing the war. Ozai would be killing two birds with one stone.

Still, revealing the truth right now would be inconvenient - Aang was in enough danger as it was. He didn't need the Fire Prince's assassins hounding his steps too. Zuko would just have to trust Uncle to hold down the fort until he was ready to come back.

He also thought about Zhao. Though his new position was hilarious, it didn't make him any less dangerous than the last time. Zhao was a cunning man when he wanted to be, and he had no limits on the atrocities he'd commit to reach his goal. It was simply too dangerous to let him follow them to the North Pole; he'd need to be gotten rid of, for good this time, as quickly as possible.

* * *

Morning arrived a couple of hours later and Bumi kicked him out of the palace, claiming he would interfere with Aang's tests. Zuko was a bit worried for him and the siblings, but he trusted that whatever game Bumi was playing, he wouldn't truly hurt them. Probably. He wandered off into the city in search of the White Lotus inn.

It was easy to find thanks to the wooden sign with the picture of a white flower hanging next to the door. The place was clean and well-kept, with tables and sofas arranged evenly throughout the room and a fire crackling merrily in the hearth at the back. Near the fire, the Pai Sho table was occupied by an old woman, but it wasn't who Zuko was looking for. Instead he made his way around the bar to the kitchen, ignoring the barman's lazy remark about customers not being allowed in there.

The door creaked open and the smell of meat and things frying hit his nose. A single cook, a very tall young man with cropped black hair, was facing the stove at the back. "We need more mushrooms fer the-" the young man cut himself off as he recognized Zuko, his dark eyes widening, before his lips stretched into a crooked smile. "Welcome, Yer Stuffiness!" He put his knife down and knelt, bowing his forehead to the floor.

"Stop that!" Zuko hissed, shooting a nervous glance at the door.

" 'Course, yer wishes are my commands," the other replied, grinning before jumping to his feet. "So, what can I do fer ya today? Our specials are the mushrooms, potato salad, and cow-goat meat," he said, pointing with his knife at each of the ingredients lying around the kitchen. "And, 'course, alcohol." He tapped the bottle standing on the counter next to him.

"It's ten in the morning, Gazo."

"Ouch, yer disapproval hurts my fragile mushy feelings." Gazo scooped up the bottle with his free hand and took a long swig. "Love the new haircut. Ya look like a bunch of seaweed with legs."

Zuko shifted his bangs self-consciously. He'd stopped wearing a topknot because it was a lot more recognizable, and his hairstyle now resembled the time he'd joined the Gaang at the Air Temple, except longer and greasier. It wasn't appropriate for a Prince, but that was the point. "I didn't come here for fashion advice-"

"A pity. Ya could really use it."

"-I was wondering if we'd heard from the North Pole yet."

Gazo was the Fire Nation's spy in Omashu. Or at least, that was what the Fire Nation believed. In reality, like every former member of the 41st division, he was a double agent working with the White Lotus. He usually relayed to Zuko information from Uncle Iroh; army movements, political climate, state of the tea plants Iroh cultivated in his windowsill.

Gazo burped. Zuko shot him a dirty look, which he just smirked at. "Nah, Illy isn't back yet."

Hm. He'd expected her to have returned already - he hoped the Northern Tribe hadn't tried to pull anything fishy with his messenger. For their own good. "I might come across her on the way there, hopefully," he mused.

Gazo lifted an eyebrow. "Ya going to the Pole?"

"Yeah. Please let the 41st know, but make sure they don't tell anyone else. I still need my father to believe I'm dead for a while longer."

Gazo looked down at his knife, twirling it this way and that as if he suddenly found it fascinating. "About that. I heard something interestin' from the Capital. Apparently, the Princess wasn't satisfied with the 'Earth rebels killed ya' bullshit the Fire Lord is feeding everyone."

"Really," Zuko said, detached.

"I heard she wanted to find the Earth scum and take revenge fer ya," Gazo continued, the ever-present grin still stretching his lips. "Isn't it cute?"

"You think she suspects something?"

Gazo shrugged. "I'd watch my back if I were ya, just in case."

Azula. Zuko shuddered, his nightmare haunting him. Since coming back in time he'd done his best to avoid her. He'd need to something about her eventually, but... He didn't know what he was supposed to feel, how he was supposed to trust himself around her. He couldn't look her in the eye without feeling the need to heave up the contents of his stomach. Azula had killed Katara in cold blood, like it meant nothing, like crushing a fly, and he'd _snapped his little sister's neck with his bare hands._ The nausea climbed up his throat, like it did every time he remembered it. What would his friends think if they knew? What would his _mother_ think?

Gazo took another swig of his bottle before offering it. "Ya sure ya don't want some? Ya look a bit stressed."

"I'm fine," Zuko replied, his throat dry. He couldn't have another breakdown here. "Thank you for the information. Continue as you've been." He moved towards the exit.

"Ya need ta learn ta relax, Yer Stuffiness!" Gazo called after him. Zuko ignored it, closing the door behind him.

* * *

 _A.N.: Thank you so much for the reviews! You guys are awesome._

 _Well, this chapter was different? Um, I'm not sure if you guys will like it... Yeah... So some hints about what Zuko's been up to before he ended up in the South Pole. He's got... issues._

 _Also, if you haven't caught it by now, might as well say it: no, Zuko does NOT have his scar._

 _I've been told I need to inject more emotion into my writing. Hence the angsty flashback. Probably not what the person meant, but oh well._

 _Tell me what you think._


	6. Village Stops

_A.N: Thank you so much for your reviews :) They really cheer me up_

 _One thing: as a reviewer has pointed out, this story is not traditional time travel in the sense that Zuko's body didn't travel back in time; his consciousness did. So there is just ONE Zuko, who has memories of a future time. Sorry if that wasn't clear._

* * *

 **Chapter Six: Village Stops**

* * *

After Aang guessed Bumi's name, the king insisted on throwing them another feast. As she ate Katara reflected that their situation, while entirely bizarre and a bit frightening, could have had a worse ending than free food, so she shrugged and decided to follow Sokka's lead and just go with it. She was careful to keep her distance from Bumi though, because while he may have been one of Aang's friends, he was also crazy and she could still feel the phantom weight of the genamite pressing against her chest and throat.

Lee showed up halfway through the feast. They told him of Bumi's tests and the creeping crystal, that he already knew about, apparently. According to him, it was a type of hard, sugary candy that was an Omashu specialty - you were supposed to lick it until it melted in your mouth. "So, let me get this straight," Lee said, smirking as he picked up a piece of genamite from a tray. It had been served for dessert. "You were afraid you'd get crushed by _candy_?" He punctuated by crunching down on it with delight.

Katara blushed. "It was scarier than it sounds." She shot a dirty look at Bumi, who smiled back. Sokka was busy sneaking pieces of genamite into his satchel.

Before they left the city, they had another ride in the mail delivery system. Aang forced Bumi and Lee to join in this time. Katara, who knew what to expect and was prepared for it, got to laugh at Lee's squeals of panic when he realized just how sharp the drop was. "Oh, is the big brave manly-man scared of heights?" she teased.

Lee's knuckles were white on the sides of the cart, his eyes wide and and his voice a higher pitch than normal. "Me? Scared? Ha ha. I'm not- eeeeeeeek!" he screamed as their cart tipped over the point of no return. Katara cackled, euphoric. That'd teach him to make fun of her.

* * *

Throughout the following days, their trip continued over mountains, sea and forest, until they found themselves a hundred miles North of Omashu with grumbling stomachs and empty supply bags. They were forced to stop in an occupied Earth Kingdom village to restock.

Katara's skin crawled every time one of the Fire Nation soldiers glanced their way, and she had to push down the memories of flames and flat merciless eyes that promised nothing but pain. Luckily, Appa had outflown news of the Avatar's return and the guards didn't question the group of strangely-dressed teenagers that wandered into town; they were too busy bullying and terrorizing the local villagers, stealing from merchants and legitimizing imaginary taxes with the threat of fire.

The group met Haru, the young earthbender who was forced to practice his art in secret lest he be taken away like his father was (like her mother was). His refusal to abandon his bending resonated deeply within her; they were the same, both of them last of their kind who had survived in the face of oppression.

"Katara, wipe that look off your face."

"What look?" she inquired, still staring dreamily after Haru.

"I know what you're going to ask, and the answer is no. You already have Lee, Aang and Momo. We're _not_ going to keep Haru."

"But Sokka, his story is so tragic _,"_ she sighed. "How can you not feel sorry for him?"

" _No,_ Katara."

Katara harrumphed.

Sokka's objections didn't stop her from going on a walk with Haru. They climbed a hill that overlooked the village and sat at the top, watching the sunset.

As he told her stories of his life, she gleaned some understanding about the way the Fire Nation operated. They killed or imprisoned all the earthbenders, even the children, even when they weren't opposing the occupation. It was the same thing they'd done in the South Pole. But that wasn't all; they offered rewards and privileges to informants, so the villagers themselves would betray each other to escape the poverty and famine of war.

"At the beginning, even when we were beaten, we were united," Haru remembered. "We stuck up for each other when the soldiers came knocking. Now, your own neighbors will report you if you say or do anything suspicious, and sometimes even if you don't."

"That's awful," Katara said.

Haru clenched his fist. "They take everything away from us and promise to give some back if we turn against each other. They make sure we're too busy fighting among ourselves to remember we should be fighting _them_." He grimaced. "Last week, a small girl in our village lifted a rock for the first time. I taught her that she needed to hide her bending at all costs or the soldiers would take her away. I was sure I'd been the only one to see it, but a few days later, she was gone." His jaw tightened. "It turned out her own parents had reported her when they realized she was an earthbender."

Katara didn't know what to say. It was so twisted and wrong. At least, in her tribe, everyone was family and protected each other - at least she had always known she could count on her people's support. Haru didn't have that anymore. "I'm so sorry, Haru. Isn't there anything we can do?"

He closed his eyes. "If my father was here, he could have united the village again," he said. "I - I'm trying, but it's too risky. Even those who would have supported a rebellion have lost their will to fight." His eyes opened, and they were dark, empty. "It's pointless, Katara."

* * *

When Haru got arrested, there was no question in her mind that they were going to save him. She was ready to have an epic fight with Sokka about it if that was what it took - but her brother agreed easily. He may not have understood what being forbidden to bend was like, but the similarities to their own home resonated too much for him to let it go.

They came up with a crazy plan that involved Katara getting arrested. Lee stayed out of it. He'd been even more quiet and withdrawn than usual since arriving to the village - he hardly spoke a word, and remained as far away from the soldiers as possible, ducking his head and shrinking on himself every time one of them walked past. He hadn't spoken to Haru or his mother either, as if he wanted to avoid involving himself in any way. When Katara told him their plan he just nodded and made himself scarce so he wouldn't mess it up for them.

She was a bit surprised by his reluctance to get involved. Wasn't this kind of thing right up the Blue Spirit's alley? But she didn't have time to ponder it; what mattered now was Haru.

The plan went off without a hitch. She was taken to a metal prison in the middle of the sea. Aang, Sokka and Lee followed on Appa, and the four of them met that night on the dock of the prison to plan the breakout.

"What do you mean, breakout?" Sokka whispered. "We can't get everyone out. There are hundreds of prisoners here!"

"Exactly!" Katara said. "Hundreds of earthbenders that can help fight against the Fire Nation."

"She's right," Lee agreed, much to her surprise. "This prison and what it represents is one of the Fire Nation's best accomplishments. If you break everyone out, you will not only be freeing earthbenders, you will reignite the fighting spirit of the entire Earth Kingdom and rally resistance groups all the way up and down the coast. It will be the start of a chain of victories against the Fire Nation."

In the silence that followed, they all looked at Sokka. He rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, let's try, but I'm not accountable if we mess up."

Lee flashed him a grin. "I have a feeling you'll do fine."

Sokka looked up at the prison from where they crouched, already drawing up a plan. "We won't be able to subdue all the guards and take over the transport ships ourselves. We're going to need the earthbenders to fight. Any ideas?"

"If they just had something they could _bend,"_ Katara whispered, frustrated.

Aang, who had been silent until now, pointed at the chimneys of the prison. "There is something!"

"Shhhh!" All four of them ducked behind some crates as a pair of guards wandered past.

"Sorry," Aang apologized in a softer voice. "But I bet those chimneys are burning coal!"

"Or in other words, earth," Sokka said. "Well spotted, Aang. Okay, here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

Zuko decided to stay quiet and interfere as little as possible with the plan. The Avatar-led breakout of the Metal Rock, after years of the Earth Army unsuccessfully trying to liberate the prison, had been an important point in the war the last time around and he couldn't risk jeopardizing it.

* * *

Much, much later, after all the earthbenders had successfully escaped aboard the transport ships, after Haru declined to join them on their trip in favor of staying to help reclaim his village, after Team Avatar was back on Appa and heading North again, a pang of panic popped Katara's bubble of happiness and satisfaction. She touched her neck, patted her clothing, pulled her tunic away from her chest and looked down her top, a knot in her throat.

"Is something wrong, Katara?" Aang asked. He'd taken a break from steering Appa and was sitting in the saddle with them.

"I lost my mother's necklace!" she wailed as she started rummaging through the packs, to no avail. She looked back at the Metal Rock, rapidly shrinking from view. It could have fallen anywhere, it could be at the bottom of the sea by now. Even if they went back, they probably wouldn't find it. She felt the sting rise in her eyes. _Mom's necklace..._

Lee cleared his throat. "You mean this?" he said, the necklace dangling from his fist.

Katara tackled him in her haste to get at it, almost throwing him off the saddle. "Yes! Where did you find it?"

"It was lying in the courtyard of the prison. C'mon, get off."

They disentangled themselves, Katara leaning back so she was kneeling while Lee resumed his previous cross-legged position in front of her. "Thank you," she said earnestly, meeting his eyes. "It's very important to me." It was the only thing she had left of her mother, the last thing to remember her by.

Understanding softened his gaze. "I know."

"I'll tie it on for you, Katara!"

Aang's interruption startled her a little, but she obliged, shifting back a bit and moving her braid out of the way while Aang knelt behind her. "Please make it extra tight."

"Sure."

Lee was shooting Aang a funny look over Katara's head. She smiled, trying to communicate how grateful she was that he'd found it. His eyes flickered to hers and he smiled back.

* * *

That afternoon they flew over a scorched forest. Sokka and Aang had been having a heated discussion about vegetarianism and meatism, but they both fell silent when they noticed the patch of dead earth, stretching for miles and miles like an ugly black scar on the landscape. Appa decided to coast lower and Katara was able to distinguish the skeletal tree trunks that rose up at regular intervals like markers in a mass grave. The bison bellowed a sad, sustained note that carried in it grief for all the life lost in whatever tragic fire that had befallen the forest.

"Somebody is feeling a lot of sadness down there."

Aang's cryptic remark was followed by another bellow from Appa. The airbender wordlessly twirled onto the bison's head and steered him down to land.

"Hang on, Aang, we shouldn't stop yet," said Sokka.

"Something is calling me," Aang replied in a puzzled sort of voice that Katara found a bit worrying.

There was a village at the limits of the forest, an old, decrepit town where wind whistled through empty streets carrying ashes and dust. "It looks abandoned," said Sokka. But a few minutes later an old man came to greet them, and he told them about the angry spirit that had been abducting children every night. The villagers didn't dare step out of their homes for too long in fear of the spirit, and now sickness and silence festered behind closed doors. In a way, the place was as dead as the forest. The old man grabbed Aang's sleeve. "You have to help us, Avatar," he begged, a fanatical glint in his eyes.

Lee was the first to react, pulling Aang back. "Let go of him."

"I think... I think I have to try," Aang said. "I'm supposed to be the bridge to the spirit world, right? I could try to talk to the spirit."

"The monster will come back tonight," the old man chanted, eyes wide.

That night, Katara watched horrified from the safety of one of the houses as the spirit took Sokka, and she wanted to run, rip her brother out of its claws, but the lock on the door had jammed, and by the time Lee kicked it open, both Sokka and Aang had disappeared from the street, all traces of their presence erased by the ghostly wind. Her heart was in her throat as she raced to edge of the village, but there was nothing there except the skeletal trees, their dead branches reaching for the sky like wailing arms. She ran into the burned forest nevertheless, screaming out her brother's name, eyes searching frantically for the tiniest hint of blue amid the death and ash.

"Katara! Katara, stop!" Lee grabbed her wrist, and she crumpled to the ground. He sank down with her. "Hey, it'll be okay. Aang will bring Sokka back, it'll be okay, don't cry." He put his arms around her and let her cry on his shoulder.

"I'm going to kill the s-stupid spirit," she sobbed. She meant it. If her brother didn't come back, she was going to-

Lee's hold on her tightened. "There's nothing we can do now but wait."

Katara spent the day sitting cross-legged at the entrance of the village, her eyes fixed on the black forest, her posture not shifting by one millimeter despite the unpleasant wind and the grumbles of her stomach. She knew she looked terrible, she probably had ashes in her hair, but she didn't care. A weight had settled in her soul, and it waited for the night with a calm patience that surprised even herself. Momo came to keep her company, sitting in her lap and demanding scratches that she provided half-heartedly. Eventually he grew bored of her distraction and wandered off into the village to look for someone who'd give him a proper massage, and Katara resumed her previous unnatural stillness.

Lee showed up at around noon and pushed a bowl of food in front of her. "Katara, you've been here all morning. You need to eat something."

She looked down at the bowl. "Oh. Thanks," she said, picking it up and spooning food in her mouth mechanically. She didn't even know what she was eating, her eyes still fixed on the forest. Sokka could be back any minute.

Lee sat down next to her and followed her line of sight. After a few minutes, he sighed and shook his head. "Could you cut my hair?"

She dropped the bowl in her lap, surprised. "What, me?"

"Um, yeah, it's kind of," he gestured to his hair.

She leaned closer. "I see what you mean. Your ends are _really_ split."

He seemed offended. "It's just getting in my eyes all the time."

"Uh huh," she said, mustering a smile. She appreciated his effort to distract her, and he was right, she couldn't just sit there and do nothing for the whole day. "Okay. I've never done it before, though."

"Just do your best."

She went to find Appa, who was resting in an empty barn, and rummaged in his saddle for her pack. She grabbed a large bowl of water, her sewing scissors and her hairbrush and headed back to the entrance to the village where Lee was waiting. She dumped the water on his head, chuckling a little at his indignant sputters, before sitting behind him and running the brush through his hair. They both fell quiet as she worked, tugging gently at the knots.

His back was much wider than hers, she noticed. She wondered if she smoothed his tunic over his shoulder blades, would she be able to feel the hinted lines of bone and muscle? "Um, how short do you want it?" she asked.

"Two or three fingers shorter, I guess."

She put the brush down, picked a strand and carefully lined up the scissors at the tip of it - better start small, she didn't want to mess it up - and cut with a smooth snip. When the bits of hair fell and the world didn't end, she breathed out and picked the next strand.

The work was repetitive and soothing, which was just what she needed to take her mind off the Spirit and Sokka, if only for a little while. She eyed the result critically. Some strands were a bit uneven, but it looked better than it had before and she was afraid that if she kept cutting she'd make it too short. "I think this part's done," she declared. Bits of damp hair had fallen on his shoulders, and she blinked and brushed them away with her hand as lightly as possible. She stood up and moved around to sit in front of him. "Let me see your bangs."

Snip snip snip. It wasn't until after she snipped the last strand and lowered her scissors that she noticed him watching her face, yellow eyes quiet with the familiar, subdued feeling she'd glimpsed in them a few times before. She'd never been this close to him though, never noticed his long lashes or the flecks of lighter gold in his irises brought out by the sun. It struck her that Lee was _really_ good-looking. His features were arranged in a way that was very neat and pleasing to look at, the sharp edges of his nose and cheekbones softened by the hair framing them and the gentle line of his lips.

Their quiet breathing was the only sound for miles around. She reached up, entranced, and he didn't move away. The tips of her fingers alighted on the smooth skin of his cheek.

It was like they'd been electrocuted. They sprung apart and Lee rolled onto his feet and slammed his hands in his pockets, staring at a point above her head. Katara scrambled up, the her cheeks heating. "Um, there was some hair," she lied, embarrassed.

Lee startled and rubbed his cheek with enough enthusiasm to scratch his skin raw. "Oh. Thanks."

"I'll, er, go put these away," she said, picking up the scissors and bowl.

 _I'm an idiot,_ she thought as she fled the scene, her face still warm. She looked down at her hands, the mortification momentarily receding as she remembered the soft, yielding skin under her fingertips.

She didn't know why, but she'd expected tough, fibrous texture instead.

 _Weird._

* * *

Seeing her brother emerge from the bamboo forest that the spirit had conjured lifted the weight in her soul. She ran to him and hugged him as tight as she could, reassured by his solid, physical form. Sokka returned her hug until his stomach made a noise. "Um, Katara, as much as I appreciate your sisterly concern, I haven't eaten in, like, thirty hours."

Aang laughed, and Katara pulled him into the hug, too. "I'm so happy you two are safe."


	7. Bender

_A.N.: So this kinda took a long time. Oops. But it's longer, to make up for it!_

 _*Discretely shuffles away*_

* * *

 **Chapter Seven: Bender**

* * *

"There might be a blockade," Lee warned. "After the break out from the Metal Rock, the Fire Nation will be patrolling this part of the coast. We'll have to fly high. Maybe you and Katara could bend a cloud, or something."

The four of them were on Appa, racing against time to arrive to the island Aang had seen in the Spirit World; it was a few miles South and a lot of miles West of the Hei Bai forest. While Katara was not enthusiastic about the backtracking or the fact that the island was, hello, in the _Fire Nation,_ she supported the idea of Aang getting some of his Avatar stuff sorted out. She had a feeling the events with the Hei Bai spirit wouldn't be an isolated occurrence and she'd rather nobody was kidnapped again.

They had been in the sky for hours already, bored out of their minds, but she balked at Lee's suggestion. "I'm not good enough to do anything like that yet." She could barely bend enough water to fill a medium-sized bowl. Well, except that time she crumbled an entire iceberg when she went fishing with Sokka, but that was different, because she'd been angry, and she wasn't quite sure how she did it.

"Don't say that, Katara! I'm sure we could do it we tried," Aang piped up. He turned to Lee. "But do you think we should make a detour, just in case?"

Sokka, who was studying Aang's map on his lap, shook his head. "We have to fly straight. We'll never make it before sunset otherwise." He groaned. "It's still gonna take _hours._ "

It did take hours. Travelling by flying bison was fast and convenient, but there wasn't much to _do._ After a while Katara let Aang convince her to give cloud-bending a go - trying wouldn't hurt, and it would chase away the boredom for a while. They stood on the saddle in identical stances, trying to pull the clouds towards them. It was fun, at first - until the thin wisps of white trailing behind the bison refused to coalesce no matter how stubbornly Katara clawed at them.

"Let's try again!" Aang enthused for the fifth time.

Katara's mouth thinned. "I don't know how to _grab_ it," she ground out.

"Try this," he suggested, moving his arms like a pendulum. Katara readjusted her stance to mimic his, but it didn't _do_ anything. _Ugh._ _Come on._

"You're too stiff."

She was so concentrated on what she was doing she jumped at Lee's statement. He was sitting on the edge of the saddle with Sokka, his chin resting on his hand, watching their attempts through half-lidded eyes. Exhaling through her nose, Katara unclenched her teeth and tried to relax. She could _feel_ the water in the air and it would start moving when she tugged, but then it slipped away like sand between her fingers.

"No, the motion of each arm has to complement the other. Like push, and pull," he added.

She dropped her arms and rounded on him. "And what would you know about bending, huh?" Without waiting for his reaction, she stomped to the opposite side of the saddle and plopped down, fuming.

Aang hesitated. "I thought you improved in that last try. Do you want to go again?"

It probably wasn't fair to take her frustration out on others. She swallowed her anger and tried to speak in a gentler tone. "No, Aang. Thanks, but I'm kind of tired." She leaned her elbow on the side of the saddle and looked out at the vast expanse of sea below. Travelling by flying bison also meant one didn't have the privacy to brood in peace. Still, for the following couple of hours Katara refused to look at anyone. Especially Lee, who probably found it funny that she was a failure.

Back home she'd been proud of her bending. It made her feel special, to be able to do something nobody else could, even if she was mocked for it more than she was praised. She'd been a bit jealous of Aang when she met him, because he was two years younger than her and already a Master of his element, but he was the Avatar, so that was alright. Then they started meeting other benders in their travels, and she realized that she actually sucked. Like, bad. Even Haru, who'd been forced to practice in secret for who knew how many years, was better at it than her.

She didn't show off her bending so much anymore, choosing to train privately instead. She'd been watching Aang and the earthbenders they'd come across and she'd even copied some of the moves she'd seen Lee do with his swords, but it was like there was a disconnection between her body and the water, some sort of block that made it feel more like trying to move sticky glue. It just didn't _flow._

What was Lee's deal anyway? She stole a glance at him; he was cleaning his swords. _You're too stiff._ Hmph. Like he knew anything about waterbending.

A dark line of smoke in the wide blue emptiness below caught her attention. "Guys! There's a ship following us!"

Everyone scrambled to the edges of the saddle. "It's Zhao," Lee said. He crawled to the front of the saddle. "There's no blockade. That's strange."

"Incoming!" Sokka cried. Appa ducked as a burning rock flew over their heads, launched from a catapult on the ship's deck.

Aang twirled onto Appa's head and urged him higher. "Come on, buddy, we have to lose them. We can't let them follow us to the island."

Appa grunted and pushed a bit faster to rise above a layer of clouds.

By the time they arrived to the island, the position of Zhao's ship was marked by a dark plume in the horizon. They hadn't managed to lose him. Appa landed in a sheltered space underneath a rocky overhang and rolled onto his back, exhausted; all the packs in the saddle clattered to the ground. "Let's go!" Aang urged. "We have to get to the temple before the sun sets, and before Zhao catches up!"

Lee pursed his lips. "You three go on. I'll distract Zhao to buy you some time." He walked over to his upturned pack and picked it up.

Katara, Sokka and Aang stared at each other uneasily. They couldn't just leave Lee against a whole shipload of Fire Nation soldiers, but the sun was sinking and the ship was getting closer. Sensing their hesitation, he paused the search through his pack and looked at them. "I'll be fine. I've done stuff like this before. I'm the Blue Spirit, remember?"

"I'll stay, too," Sokka declared.

"No, you need to go with Aang. There are Fire Sages inside that temple that you'll have to deal with too." He huffed. "Look, if it gets too dangerous, I promise I'll run away." He resumed digging for his mask.

All of a sudden Katara felt really guilty for yelling at him before. Maybe he wasn't a bender, but he'd been trying to help.

There wasn't time to think of anything else, so the three of them left Lee behind and raced up the long, winding trail of stone steps to the temple. It was a large tower with golden walls and red roofs that glistened in the setting sun, the only element of color among the otherwise black rock of the volcano. Katara had never seen such a tall building before, but there were more pressing things to do than stop to gawk.

It turned out Lee had been right about the Fire Sages; luckily, one of them was on their side and agreed to guide them to the chamber at the center of the temple. His name was Shyu. Unluckily, said chamber could only be opened by the combined action of five firebenders shooting fire into the mouths of five golden dragons at the same time. Oh, come _on._ Was Roku really on their side or just messing with them?

Through what Sokka called Creative Problem Solving but was really just a liberal application of explosives they tricked the other Fire Sages into thinking Aang had managed to bypass the mechanism and was already inside. As soon as the old men opened the chamber to get to him, Aang flew over their heads, the doors immediately closing behind him. As much as they tried, the Sages couldn't get them to open again after that.

Instead they turned around and captured Katara, Sokka and Shyu, but hey, at least Aang got his audience with the mysterious and fickle spirit of Avatar Roku.

They were marched to a column and tied to it with metal chains. Katara had been taken prisoner many times by now, and while being restrained didn't terrify her as much as it used to, she still hated that feeling of helplessness.

"The door still won't open!" one of the Sages said. "What should we do?"

She wiggled, trying to make some room. Next to her, Sokka was doing the same. Maybe between the two of them they could create just enough space for her beanpole brother to slip out. The Sages were too busy debating among themselves to notice what they were doing.

"You will do nothing." The cultured drawl came from behind Katara, from the corridor that led to the chamber. She'd only heard the voice once, but it sent a shiver down her spine. "If the Avatar is inside, at some point, he will have to come _out."_

 _Zhao._

She couldn't see him from her position, but she could hear his heavy steps getting closer to her pillar, followed by the metallic sounds of armored soldiers behind him. Her stomach sank. _What happened to Lee?_

"Who are you?" asked the oldest Sage.

"I am Zhao, Captain of the Navy. I have come to capture the Avatar and take him to the Fire Lord." He entered her field of vision then. He was holding one of his arms stiffly against his chest, but otherwise showed no signs of having been in a fight. His eyes slanted to the side and froze her in place. He was a firebender, but his eyes were like daggers, like ice.

"Rest assured, I won't kill you," he said, voice slimy smooth. "You're not even worth a bounty, so there would be no point. I'm sure we could find another _use_ for you." Katara shivered. "Your friend the Blue Spirit, on the other hand - now _that's_ a bounty I'm looking forwards to cashing in."

Her stomach went cold.

"There's no way a salami like you managed to kill him!" Sokka shouted.

"Yeah," she added, but her voice wavered. It couldn't be _. Lee's not dead, I know it._ Her eyes narrowed at Zhao. "Yeah," she repeated more strongly, "you're just making it up. You're not even a Captain, you're banished, Lee told us about it."

The Sages stared at Zhao with a mixture of surprise and suspicion. A muscle in his jaw twitched, his gaze on Katara turning hard. "Maybe keeping you alive is too much trouble, after all." And before she even registered his words, he lunged, and fire erupted from his fist.

She screamed, unable to look away from the flames. The blast was big enough that it would swallow the whole column, a dragon roaring for her death, they were going to die they were going to - Shyu jerked against the chains, yelling too, but it was too late, the chains didn't let him move enough to bend away the fire, it was _hot_ -

Terror had shrunk her pupils to pinpricks, frozen her eyes open, so Katara saw every second of it: the dark, nimble shape that jumped between their column and the fire, the familiar movement he made with his swords, like a circle or a spiral, and the way the fire, impossibly, amazingly, dissipated into thin air.

The Blue Spirit sprung like a firecracker towards Zhao, blade clanging against armor. Then all the soldiers Zhao had brought and the Sages were on him. Lee was good, but he couldn't hold his own against so many people in such a cramped space. In less than a minute his face was pressed to the floor, three men straining to hold him down. He managed to kick one of them in the face and send him reeling back, clutching his nose, but the wounded soldier was immediately replaced by another one.

Katara was a jumble of confused emotions. Relief at being alive, incomprehension because _had Lee actually bent the fire?_ Fear when one of the men holding him grabbed him by his hair and smashed his masked face against the ground, and Lee's limbs stopped flailing. Hope that Aang would open the chamber and save them all.

"Let me through," Zhao ordered, pushing his way past the men that surrounded Lee. He crouched next to him and grabbed his hair again, lifting his head. "Not so smug now, are we?"

Zhao tore Lee's mask off. His eyes widened in recognition. "What?"

Chaos erupted. The doors to the inner chamber burst open and the men that hadn't been occupied with Lee blasted fire inside, but it was reflected back at them by an old man in Fire Nation robes and the glowing eyes of the Avatar, and they scrambled back, screaming. The chains around her torso melted away without hurting her skin. People shouted. "Avatar Roku!" "He's going to destroy the temple!"

Katara ducked behind the column and clutched her head, eyes screwed shut, while fire and rock rained on around her.

"Help me get Lee!" Sokka shouted, grabbing her upper arm and pulling her up.

They zig-zagged around collapsing pieces of roof and cracks of lava opening in the ground towards where they'd last seen him. Zhao was grappling with a semi-conscious Lee, snarling something at him before knocking him out with a punch to the head. He lifted his fist for another blow, but Sokka smashed into his side with a cry of "Hyaaaaa!", toppling him over.

Katara grabbed Lee's arm and dragged him away from the fissure opening beneath their feet; the gap spread, running between Sokka and Zhao and forcing them to roll away from each other. Zhao shot a fire blast over the fissure, but Shyu appeared in front of Sokka to stop it just in time. The two men engaged in a firebending duel over the crack, punching fire at each other.

In the midst of the chaos, the spirit of Avatar Roku melted into the smaller figure of Aang. Sokka raced to catch him. Around them the temple rumbled and shook, the floor starting to lean to one side. Katara shook Lee frantically. They had to get out _now_ or they'd be buried under hundreds of tonnes of stone and metal.

"Lee! Lee, wake up!" He stirred and blinked, his eyes coming into focus. "Come on, we have to _go!"_ They staggered through the burning building behind Sokka and Aang as the slope of the floor became steeper, until their feet were sliding, rather than running. Katara looked back once, just in time to see Zhao's fire push Shyu into one of the fiery fissures. The old man's cry was engulfed by the booming crashes thundering through the temple.

For a moment she was holding Zhao's gaze across the collapsing room. Disdain and hatred danced in his eyes. Then Lee gripped her tunic and threw her out the window.

A slap of cold air stung her face. Katara didn't have time to scream before she landed on Appa's saddle on her hands and knees. Lee fell down next to her with a grunt and the flying bison accelerated, Roku's temple collapsing behind them in a slow-motion cascade of rocks and lava.

* * *

"Oh, man." Sokka flopped back on his bedroll. "That was _intense."_

"We should have gone back for Shyu," Aang stated hollowly. Transforming into his past self had taken everything out of him.

His words brought back the memory of how the earth had swallowed up the one decent Fire person they knew like a greedy beast. _He wasn't swallowed up,_ she amended in her mind. _He was pushed._ Katara's chest constricted. It was an awful and depressing thing to think about. She felt drained, physically and emotionally.

They had found a small uninhabited island to settle down in for the night. It was much too close to the temple's island for Katara to feel safe, but Appa just couldn't carry them any further. They hadn't built a campfire for fear of being seen, so it was cold, on top of everything.

"It's way too risky, Aang," Sokka replied. "Don't worry. I'm sure he made it out."

Katara decided not to correct him. Aang had enough to deal with as it was.

She glanced at Lee, who was lying down a few feet away with his back to her. Now that the danger had passed she recalled, as if through a fever dream, the moment when he made the fireball disappear. But it was just impossible. He couldn't be a firebender. They would have found out by know.

 _Right_. _Shyu managed to bend it, or maybe Zhao's attack just ran out of juice. Or maybe there's a technique Lee knows to dispel fire by making wind with his swords, or something._

She tossed and turned fitfully that night, her eyes snapping open at every little sound around their camp. When she finally did sink into sleep, Zhao's dark eyes followed her there, chasing her from all sides, caging in her every movement. She startled awake, fear constricting her throat.

 _Calm down. Just a dream_. Aang was safe, sleeping next to Sokka. Lee-

-wasn't in his bedroll.

She continued staring at it, but he didn't magically materialize.

Katara stood up carefully. She spun around, peering into the darkness, her heart pounding. The island they were on was bare of vegetation, save for a lone tree standing guard next to their camp; moonlight illuminated the desolate volcanic rock from shore to shore. It was like he'd vanished.

 _He took Appa,_ she realized, her stomach sinking. The looming lump of ancient beast was also notoriously absent. She looked up at the sky, and, sure enough, she spotted a dark bison-shaped blotch, gradually getting bigger. _He's coming back?_

Katara scurried behind the solitary tree and watched as Lee landed Appa far enough away that the others wouldn't be woken up by the noise. He was wearing his Blue Spirit attire, the complete set with black clothes and arm guards. His movements were heavy with weariness as he petted the bison and murmured praises.

Katara crept forwards until she stood directly behind him. "Where did you go?" she whispered furiously.

Lee jumped three feet in the air and whirled around. "Holy sh- Katara!"

They both winced at the volume of his shout. Behind them, Aang rolled over. Sokka made sleepy noises. "Keep it down, Momo," he mumbled, before his snores resumed.

Lee lowered his voice. "Nowhere! I just wanted to clear my head."

"If you don't tell me, I'm waking them up," she threatened.

"Wait! Uh... can we pretend that you're dreaming?"

"No." She crossed her arms. "How long have you been doing stuff like this?" The possibility that he might have been secretly sneaking off with Appa every night, without telling anyone, worried her in a way she wasn't able to define.

He lifted his hands in a placating gesture. "It's the first time, I swear."

Katara continued glaring at him, expectant. The wind picked up and carried the scent of ashes and burnt clothing to her nose, and she realized she could be staring a firebender in the face - _don't be ridiculous_. There was no way Lee was a firebender.

He sighed, deep from his bones. "Look, it's something you might not like to hear."

"Spit it out."

He sat down and crossed his legs, and ran a hand through his hair. His voice wavered. "I went to kill Zhao."

That threw her for a loop. Among all the things he could have said, it wasn't the one she had expected. "What?"

"He's cruel and ruthless and _dangerous,_ Katara. He would have followed us to the North Pole. He would have captured Aang and taken him to the Fire Lord where he'd be a prisoner forever, and he'd have killed the rest of us, and he saw my face-" his words tumbled out in a disorganized rush. "He's done some things that you can't-" he shut his mouth.

Katara had trouble wrapping her head around the concept. _He killed Zhao?_

She didn't know what to say. She didn't even know what to _feel_.

There was no doubt in her mind that Zhao was a monster. He razed an entire town and tried to incinerate her and her brother alive. He killed Shyu. She should be relieved he was gone. And though some part of her did feel that way, she was also shocked and uneasy.

 _Lee_ had done it. Suspecting he'd killed people before wasn't the same as _knowing_ that he'd planned and executed an assassination in cold blood.

As if sensing her thoughts, his face distorted into a grimace. "I hate doing it. But Zhao was too big a threat. Someone had to." He shrugged off the leather belt that tied his swords to his back. The scabbard thumped when it hit the ground. Katara eyed the swords on the floor. _I hate doing it._ Exactly how many people had he killed?

Just how well did she actually know him?

"I don't think," she started tentatively. "I don't think we should tell Aang."

Lee winced. "No. Please don't."

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Zhao's face was a clear picture in her mind, the triumphant, savage glint in his eyes when he pushed Shyu into the lava. She wasn't stupid, she knew people like that deserved to fall off a cliff and break their neck. But still. "Wasn't there another option? We could have-"

"What?" He stood up abruptly. "Hope he doesn't kill us every time he catches us? Take him along with us as a prisoner?" His voice rose in volume. " _Ask_ him nicely to stop following us?"

Katara shuffled uncomfortably.

He turned his back on her and started taking off his arm guards with frustrated, jerky motions.

"No," she admitted quietly. "I guess not."

There would probably be a time when she'd have to make the choice to kill someone too, she realized. If it was them or Sokka, if it was them or Aang, if the swine who killed her mother was standing right in front of her then maybe... The thought made her feel nauseous. It wasn't a line you could excuse, justify away, uncross. Death was absolute and final.

Maybe Zhao deserved to die, but wouldn't killing him mean they were just as bad as him? Or did it have to be done to prevent him from hurting any more people? She didn't know the answer.

Lee just stood there, staring blankly at the wall of fur that was Appa.

Their friendship used to be effortless, sharing the workload around camp, filling silences with playful banter or teaming up against Sokka and Aang when they got too carried away. But putting on the Blue Spirit mask turned him into a stranger. She couldn't read him, she couldn't understand him, and she hated it. The lump of anger climbed its way back up her throat. "You should have told us."

His back stiffened. "You would have stopped me."

"Yes, because it was really dangerous! What if you hadn't come back? We would've had no idea what happened to you! Did you think about that?"

His body language told her that no, he hadn't. But it only lasted a second before his fists clenched. "It's done now. Just - go back to sleep."

She felt helpless; the things she thought she knew about Lee were slipping through her fingers like the clouds earlier that day. She realized that even if he felt guilty, he didn't regret it; he would probably decide to do something like this again at some point, and more importantly, there was little she could do to stop him.

"I still wish you would have told me." Great. Now she sounded _wounded._ "My point _is,"_ she resumed with more conviction, "I don't know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I do know it was really dangerous, and you could have died." Curiosity gave her pause. "How did you even, I mean... There were a lot of soldiers."

Lee glanced back at her. "I was careful," he rasped. "They didn't think we'd come back."

"Oh. And Zhao?"

His eyes settled heavily on her face. He didn't reply immediately, as if giving her the time to take back her question. "Zhao was asleep."

 _Oh._

She saw the image in her mind, the Blue Spirit looming over Zhao, swords raised -

She swallowed. "Next time you do something like this, you need to tell me."

"It was necessary-"

"Listen, just - I won't stop you, but talk to me first." At least, if he _told_ her, she'd know where he was. Maybe she could help somehow. He shouldn't be making these decisions alone. And maybe, if he was able to trust her with this, maybe she'd find it easier to trust _him_ too.

She waited, standing stiffly so as not to betray how important this answer was to her. He turned to face her fully, surprised by the request. "I promise." He gave her a small, grateful smile. "I'll talk to you first."

She nodded slowly. _Good one, Katara. You just enlisted yourself as a murder planner_.

But the lump in her throat had eased somewhat.

* * *

She had another nightmare when she went to sleep, except she remembered it this time. She was in a temple, but it wasn't Roku's. This one was an Air Temple, like the one where they'd found Monk Gyatso. Lee was there. And for a reason that she couldn't pinpoint, his mere presence in this place infuriated Katara beyond reason.

She leaned against the doorframe, staring somberly at the two-faced traitor. He thought he could just- he could just- he looked up and she sneered at him, watching the hope in his eyes dim.

Good. She wasn't here to make friends.

She walked inside the room."You might have everyone else here buying your... transformation, but you and I both know you've struggled with doing the right thing in the past." She stepped forwards, until her face was only inches from his, and watched the bead of sweat roll down his jaw. He was scared. He should be. "So let me tell you something, right now. You make one step backward, one slip-up, give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang, and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore. Because I'll make sure your destiny ends, right then and there. Permanently."

Like she should have done in the catacombs in Ba Sing Se.

What had he been thinking, coming here? That he could fool her twice?

He remained silent, and Katara curled her lip in disgust, whirled around and slammed the door shut behind her.

She woke up to the sounds of Aang's laughter as he whizzed around on his air scooter, chased by an irate Lee crying something about spilled tea, while Sokka slept on, undisturbed by the chaos.

* * *

 _A.N.: Sooooooo... I know this chapter is kinda unpolished, but what did you think?_


	8. Memories

_A.N: Thank you so much for the reviews :) they make my day_

 _Also sorry this took so long_

* * *

 **Chapter Eight: Memories**

* * *

It was a quiet day up in Appa's saddle. A pleasant tailwind carried them leisurely east, away from the volcanic islands and the memories of fire and death and back to the safety of the Earth Kingdom. No other living being bothered them way up here; it was just them, the blue sky above and the blue sea below and miles of air in between.

Katara lay face-up on the saddle, arms and legs spread out, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face. She could hear the ruffle of the wind on Appa's fur and feel the beast's chest expand with each breath against her back. It was one of those times when the monotony of bison travel didn't bother her; she didn't feel the need to do or think about anything and she was content simply breathing and feeling and letting the breeze carry away all her worries.

Sokka was also lying on his back next to her, snoring. Momo had curled up against his shoulder, his long ears curled over his head to block out the sun. Aang and Lee were talking quietly at the front of the saddle, the soft rise and fall of their voices lulling her to drowsiness.

She stretched her body out, stiffening all her muscles, and relaxed again with a pleased sigh. Maybe the airbenders were onto something with all their meditation and spiritual inner peace stuff. She wondered if there were any waterbending meditation techniques. She should ask when they got to the North Pole.

"No!" Sokka cried abruptly, startling her out of her snooze. They both jerked upright, the sides of their heads banging together. Momo startled and bolted across the saddle to hide in Aang's shirt.

"Sokka! Watch it!"

"You're the one that knocked into me!"

"Yeah, because you yelled for no reason!"

Aang raised his eyebrows, patting Momo comfortingly. Lee rolled his eyes. They resumed their conversation as if nothing had happened.

"Whatever." Sokka sighed and fell back on the saddle. "Man... What a weird dream." Katara scowled, still rubbing the side of her forehead. Her brother ignored her, staring at the sky with a distant look in his eyes.

"What was it?" she grumbled. There was no chance of recovering her inner peace now, not with the stab of pain near her temple courtesy of Sokka's chin. Might as well find something to make fun of him for.

Sokka remained silent for a while. "Nothing, I guess, it was just... weird." He turned away from her, making it clear that he didn't want to elaborate.

Something in his tone of voice made Katara remember her own dream, last night. It had been almost as vivid as the lightning dream, and Lee had the same scar. Could these dreams have some meaning? What if the spirits were trying to tell her something? But why would the spirits talk to her when they had a perfectly good Avatar right there?

Momo picked that moment to emerge from the back of Aang's shirt and fold his ears over the boy's eyes. "Huh?" Aang reached a hand up, but Momo was faster and scurried over his chest and onto Appa, and Aang slapped himself on the face instead. He floundered and would have fallen off the saddle if Lee hadn't automatically reached out to steady him. "That wasn't funny, Momo! Bad lemur." Momo chattered mockingly. Aang stuck out his tongue. Lee rolled his eyes.

...Anyway, a perfectly good Avatar. Listening to spirits was basically his job description.

But still, what if they were trying to warn her about Lee getting that scar? What if she was going to be killed by lightning sometime soon? She strained to remember the moments after it hit, wincing past the ghostly pang of pain in her chest. Lee's face hovered above her. His eyes were shimmering with tears, his pupils pinpricks of terror. There was no way her subconscious had made up an expression like that.

Aang and Lee had finished talking, and the younger boy was now engaged in a grimacing contest with Momo while Lee tilted his head back towards the sun, enjoying its rays the way she had been a few minutes ago.

Her eyes traced the open angles of his throat. His collar was fraying, she noticed. In fact, his whole tunic looked dirty, worn-down and torn in places. Maybe they could spare enough money to get him a new one in the next town they came across. Maybe a new sheath for his swords, too - she'd noticed that the leather was worn when he took them out to clean them.

And then there was Zhao.

She couldn't put it out of her mind no matter how hard she tried. It felt like somebody had peeled a veil off her eyes and she was seeing Lee under a new, harsher light that threw all his edges into contrast. She was realizing that he was like an iceberg; the small pieces of himself that he revealed to them little by little were nothing compared to the mountain of secrets hidden under the surface.

She'd considered telling Sokka. Not Aang, because he was a monk and twelve, and he had enough things to worry about already, what with learning the elements and stopping the war before the Comet arrived. There was no need to upset him when Zhao was already dead and there was nothing anybody could do to change it. But it would make sense to talk to her brother. She was fairly sure he'd take her side, or at least, he'd agree that it had been dangerous.

And yet she held back. It made her feel special, to be the only one to glimpse the other side of Lee.

She could make her own judgement and choices, she reasoned, there was no need to bring Sokka into it. Her agreement with Lee was enough for the moment; he wouldn't do anything rash again without telling her.

Lee opened his eyes. She looked away before he caught her staring.

* * *

As they traveled, Katara started teaching Aang the few waterbending moves she knew. That way he'd at least have _some_ idea of what he was doing when he got to the Pole. She was looking forward to it, because she'd never really discussed waterbending with anyone before, and back home Sokka always used to make fun of her and her magic water. They stopped at a waterfall near a trading port for their first lesson.

He picked it up with baffling ease, like it was as natural to him as breathing, but she didn't think much of it, at least not at first. He was the Avatar; he was supposed to be good at this stuff.

But as she gradually increased the difficulty of their lessons, showing him things that had taken her _years_ of daily practice to master, only to watch him perform them flawlessly after just a few minutes of fooling around with the water, she started to grow frustrated. "I don't understand. How can you get it so fast?"

"Well, you had to figure things out on your own. I have an awesome teacher," he said, smiling.

She supposed he had a point, but still _._ "This teacher needs to think for a while about what to teach you next. The lesson is over."

"But we just got started!" Aang complained. Katara ignored him and stalked off, fuming.

It was just - so unfair. She'd worked so hard and practiced so much but of course he had to _show off,_ like always _-_

 _Maybe you really, actually suck,_ a malicious voice in the back of her brain whispered. _Might as well ask Lee and Sokka to teach you a weapon. You're clearly not going very far as a bender._

 _Shut up,_ Katara thought furiously back. Aang was just - he was just a fluke. If she just had someone she could learn from, someone who wasn't an airbender or an earthbender or a swordsman, she was sure she could become a strong bender.

It was one of those moments she instantly regretted. She was holding back the Avatar's learning because she was a jealous hag. There was a war going on! Aang's training was more important than her feelings.

It took half an hour of brooding before she worked up the courage to apologize and shuffled back to the waterfall. The three boys had their heads together, whispering about something, but they all looked up when she approached. She hesitated. "I'm sorry about earlier, Aang. We can keep going, if you want."

"Uh, okay," Aang agreed tentatively. "Are you sure? I don't mind waiting-"

"No, no. I figured out what to teach you. Let's go!"

Katara managed to stay calm for most of the lesson, determined not to let her own insecurities win. But then Lee wandered over and took a seat on a nearby rock to watch. It was one thing to make mistakes in front of Aang, but why did he have to be there too? She could feel his eyes on her, evaluating. He didn't say anything, but the weight of his gaze made her even more nervous and frustrated, which messed up her bending even more. The giant wave she was trying to summon sputtered and died while half-formed.

She gave up and rounded on Lee. "Don't you have anything else to do?" she demanded.

He raised his eyebrows. "I can't watch?"

"Of course you can," Aang beamed. "Watch this!" he performed the move they'd been practicing. Without even turning to look, Katara knew his wave would be larger than hers.

"No, you can't," she snapped.

"Why not?"

Katara crossed her arms, refusing to drop her gaze. "You're messing up Aang's concentration."

Aang's wave crested well above Appa's head and thundered back into the river.

Lee's eyes narrowed. "It looks to me like _he's_ not the one who has problems with his concentration."

She took an angry step closer. What did he even know about bending? What gave him the right to sit there and criticize, like any of this was _easy?_ Lee stood up from the rock he'd been sitting on, which put his height above hers again, which made her even angrier. "This is _my_ lesson, and _you_ don't know anything about waterbending, so go bother someone else," she spat, making a cutting motion with her arm.

His eyes flashed with the steel of the Blue Spirit.

"Guys..." Aang's interjection was ignored.

Lee leaned closer, his words slow, tight, deliberate. "Really? From where I'm sitting, I can't really tell who's teaching who. You're barley slapping at the water, _Master_ Katara."

Her cheeks flushed with shame, and her fists clenched. How could he say that? She was trying her best. She was working so hard. She wanted to - punch him, hit him, slice him. To her dismay, unshed tears burned behind her eyes. She stalked away from the river, shoving him as she walked past.

Aang ran after her. "Wait, Katara-" Lee yanked him back by the collar of his tunic. Aang glared at him.

Lee put his finger over his lips to indicate silence before pointing at the river.

The entirety of it, as far as they could see, was frozen into deadly ice spikes that glistened in the sun. Aang's eyes widened in awe.

The older boy's smirk was one of smug satisfaction.

* * *

That night, Katara sneaked away from camp so she could practice on her own. She needed to figure out new things to teach Aang, since he'd already caught up to everything she knew. And waterbending under the moon was calming. And there wouldn't be anybody around to watch her fail, thank you very much.

She assumed her stance again, trying to pull up the water in the huge wave that she hadn't managed to perform that morning, but it wouldn't rise higher than her shoulder. She tightened her muscles, forcing it up a couple more inches, her arms trembling with the effort of maintaining her grasp on it.

"Still too stiff," a voice whispered in the shell of her ear.

She whirled around, throwing her arm out, but Lee skipped back, easily dodging the blow. Amusement danced in his eyes, made brighter by the moonlight. The rest of him was cloaked in shadow.

"What do you want? Are you here to watch me slap at water again?"

He lifted his hands in surrender. "I didn't mean what I said this morning. I know how hard learning is. I'm sorry."

"Sure," she said, sarcasm dripping off the word. "Well, you can apologize by leaving me alone."

He stayed where he was. She waited, heart pounding with the anticipation of another fight. They were doing that a lot lately, provoking each other more than usual, goading and pushing when before Zhao one of them would have given in. Katara didn't know why she kept challenging him, only that the full moon made her feel restless, and the frustration from failed waterbending demanded she yell at someone.

But it seemed he wasn't in the mood for arguing, and stayed silent.

Katara clenched her teeth and returned to her exercise. What did it matter if he saw her anyway? He already thought she sucked. She decided to start again with the basics, pushing and pulling waves on the shore, trying to find solace in the calming rhythm.

After a minute, he spoke. "The friend I told you about, when we first met."

It took a while for Katara to remember what he was referring to. Her movements slowed. He hadn't mentioned his laundry-friend again since that day, and curiosity permeated through her irritation - she'd always wanted to know the end of that story.

"She was a waterbender, a powerful one. Maybe the best in the world." It was harder to pretend she wasn't surprised this time.

Quiet footfalls approached from behind. "As a fighter she was unpredictable, always adapting. She turned a defensive move into an offensive one, unyielding like earth one second and slippery like air the next." His voice was low, its usual rasp softened, and in the quiet of night it made her shiver. "Whenever she was cornered she would always come up with something new and unexpected."

She could feel his heat when he stopped directly behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, pushing down, forcing her to relax. "The nature of water is change. You can't do that if you're so tight all the time. You need to concentrate less on the movements themselves, and just bend."

His hand burned through the cloth on her shoulder. Katara felt strange and woozy. Like it wasn't happening to her, like she was watching the scene from somewhere else. And then, the water lit up in her awareness - not just in the river, but in the grass beneath her feet, pumping through the veins in Lee's body, in the air itself. Energy surged through her muscles and Katara stepped forwards, grabbing the river and lifting it, and whirled, bringing it crashing down on Lee.

He wasn't prepared and it smashed into him with the force of a giant hammer, throwing him to the ground. He rolled onto his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering. Katara stared at her palms, dazed. "I feel... weird," she said.

Lee looked up just in time to watch her faint.

* * *

 _She was in a place that was cold, but at the same time brimming with life. Energy overflowed from every blade of grass, from every leaf and flower. Even the moonlight seemed alive, dancing with the glowflies on the rippling surface of a small lake. The Spirit Oasis. In this mysterious place, she was fighting Lee._

 _He had a nasty burn scar that covered his left eye and cheek, and his hair was mostly shaved except for a ponytail._ _"Aren't you a big girl now?" he taunted, shooting a fire ball at her to probe at her defenses._

 _"Yes, I am!" Katara replied, swatting it aside with a sleeve of water._

 _The water was an extension of her soul, a pure manifestation of her will; it traced arcs and shields and icicles in the air around her, her fingers controlling every minute droplet like they were cells of her own body. She was sweeping the floor with him, knocking him down again and again. She trapped him in an ice ball, watching a shadow of fear pass over his face as the ice closed in around him._

Katara's eyes snapped open.

"Katara! You're awake!" Aang said, leaning down to give her a brief hug.

"What happened? Lee said you suddenly fainted!" Sokka said from her other side.

Lee stood a short distance away, still dripping wet. His eyes held a mixture of relief, worry, and a hint of the same apprehension that she'd just seen in the dream.


	9. Past and Future

_A.N.: So I looked at this after months of not looking and... 500 follows? Wow. When did this happen? It gave me the motivation to pick up this story again... Dunno how many of you will still be following at this point though._

 _Also, this chapter is a bit meh, but the next one I think will be more different and interesting._

* * *

 **Chapter Nine: Past and Future**

* * *

Katara let Sokka help her up. She dusted off her tunic while her brother hovered and asked again if she was okay.

She could still feel the water, as clearly as she had in that dream. She repeated the movement. Grab the river, lift it up, and send it crashing down - she aimed at a tree this time.

"Wow, Katara, that was amazing!" Aang said, eyes wide. "How did you do it?"

"I don't know. But that's not all I can do." She pulled more water from the river. It hung in the air as an amorphous blob, and then she started to shape it. A snake, a perfect orb, a flat disk. She shifted her footing and swung her arm, and it sliced through the air, cutting through a nearby rock as cleanly as a knife through butter. The top half of the rock slid down and fell on the ground.

It felt strange. Like her body knew what it was supposed to do before her conscious mind did. Like the part of her dream where she could waterbend had stayed with her when she'd woken up.

Maybe she was still dreaming?

There was so much water.

"Katara, why didn't you show us you could do this stuff earlier?" Aang asked, still in awe.

"Because I couldn't," she replied, letting her arms drop. When she looked at Aang, she saw things about him she hadn't noticed before - the ease with which he carried himself, the almost imperceptible sway in his stance.

Aang seemed confused. "You mean this is the first time you-"

"Yeah," Katara replied, glancing at Lee. There was something new about him as well, or rather, something that had always been there but she was only now starting to notice; how his weight was evenly distributed, how his arms and joints were loose, ready to snap into motion. She could feel his blood too, flowing faster than it was in Aang. _Aren't you a big girl_ now?

He'd been a firebender, in the dream.

There were things that she should know. Important things. She tried to dig in her brain, but the memories stayed just out of reach. So much water. She'd opened the door to an extra sense she hadn't known she had, and the grass under her feet glowed, the river ran clear like bells. Her friends' hearts beat a shining, vibrating rhythm.

"You've been practicing a lot," Sokka observed. "Maybe that's just how the mystic mo-jo goes, it's crappy for a long time and then bam! Instant upgrade."

"That isn't really how it works," Aang replied. "How do you feel, Katara?"

"I'm okay..." she replied. "I'm more than okay." The air glimmered with currents of _life_ and she was in the middle of it all. She could drift away at any second. She closed her eyes and cocked her head to listen.

"Katara?"

The currents swept her up, joining the grass and the river and the clouds.

"Katara!"

Katara jolted back to her body. What was wrong with her? "Sorry. It's just, the water's everywhere."

The boys looked at each other, worried. Sokka was the first to break the silence. "Well..." He yawned. "I dunno about you guys, but I don't have the brain power to figure this out right now. I say we go back to sleep. Maybe Katara will feel better in the morning."

Yes, he had a point, her head was a mess. She didn't understand anything. Truly, she wasn't fully convinced she was awake, maybe she was still in the dream. Maybe she'd wake up tomorrow and everything would be back to normal. Not that she wanted it to, waterbending was awesome, but she felt so woozy and distant, not like herself at all. She nodded and followed her brother to camp, feeling Zuko's silent gaze on her back.

Zuko? No, Lee. Lee's silent gaze. How could she get his name wrong after travelling with him for months? She shook her head, giving up on making sense of anything, got into her sleeping bag and instantly fell into blissful sleep.

* * *

Katara woke up with a clear head. The eerie feeling of floatiness that had scattered her thoughts was gone.

The waterbending, amazingly, was not.

There were droplets of dew on the grass, _in_ the grass and even in the air, if she focused very hard on it. Like a fuzzy, almost transparent background presence that you didn't notice unless you were looking. It was nowhere near as intense as it had been last night, but she sensed she could reach for it, if she wanted to, the same way you'd be able to reach for a high shelf if you went on your tiptoes and stretched your body as far as it would go. She concentrated and carefully pulled a droplet of water from the air. She opened her eyes to see it floating above her palm, and exhaled a sigh of wonder.

Lee glanced up from where he was crouching, building a campfire in the shape of a perfect circle. "Morning," he said.

"Good morning," Katara replied without looking up from the water.

He stood up and walked closer. "How are you feeling?"

"Back to normal, mostly. Except," she pointed her index finger up in the air, showing him the droplet floating above it. "Looks like I can waterbend now. _Properly_ waterbend." A giddy feeling bubbled in her chest when she said it. It was so _easy!_

"That's... Good."

She reached out with her senses, looking for more water. Like a child with a new toy, it didn't matter where the weird abilities had come from - she just _had_ to see how much she could do. She jumped out of her sleeping bag. "Let's wake up Sokka and Aang! I want to try stuff."

He cleared his throat. "I think it's better to let them sleep. We took shifts last night, to watch over you."

That was surprisingly thoughtful of them. "Oh. Thanks."

Lee shrugged. "Sokka's idea." He was watching her carefully, like she might spontaneously explode at any time.

She should ask him about the Zhao thing. Was he, like, a secret Earth Kingdom assassin? A firebender? A deserter? What was he after? Though, if she was honest with herself, those weren't really the questions she wanted to ask. They were important, but they didn't bother her as much. What she really wanted to know was why she was having those dreams, and what it had to do with her waterbending, and what _he_ had to do with it.

But what was she supposed to say? _Do you know why I have weird dreams about you?_ It sounded like she had a crush or something.

This thing about Lee... It was hard to put into words. Two instincts warred within her and she didn't know which one to follow. He was obviously holding things back, but it wasn't malicious. He wanted to help. Despite the Blue Spirit stuff and the secrecy, and sometimes being a prick, and despite what the latest dreams were telling her, he wasn't an enemy.

But the opposing instinct wouldn't quite go away; the feeling that if she ever did learn the truth, it would change everything.

She wanted to know him, the real him. She wanted him to trust her enough to let her in on his secrets.

"Hey," her droplet pulled more moisture, becoming a band of water lazily circling her wrist like a bracelet. "Do you know anything about this?"

"No... I don't."

It sounded genuine, surprisingly.

In this precise moment, she also really, really wanted to waterbend. The power was wound up within her, bursting to be released. She rocked back and forth on her feet, unable to keep still. There was another way to bring out the Lee of steel and shadow, wasn't there?

Katara grinned.

"That friend of yours, you ever sparred with her?" By the wariness in his gaze, it was clear he understood which friend she was referring to. She stepped forwards."No? Never fought a waterbender?"

Lee stepped back. "Bad idea, Katara."

"Oooh, you scared?" she goaded. "Afraid I'll win?"

They were opposite mirrors of each other, Lee walking backwards at the same rate as she advanced. _"Very_ bad idea. Trust me."

"I can totally take you." She raised her hands, preparing to pull on the blanket of dew that covered the forest. His amber eyes flashed in warning, but Katara ignored it. "You don't have to go easy on me." As she said the words, she realized the truth in them. She was a warrior and she could fight - even if her brain hadn't quite caught up, her gut somehow knew it.

For a moment it seemed like he would bite, like he _wanted_ to bite. He was wholly focused on her, tense, ready to leap. Katara's heart pumped with anticipation.

Then he blinked and shook his head. "No. I'm not fighting you. I'm, uh..." He glanced at the ground, and, spotting an escape, quickly bent and scooped up the teapot from where he'd left it when she'd woken up. "I'm making tea," he declared triumphantly.

Katara hesitated.

Lee smirked. "Go play in the river or something."

So last night he was fine getting behind her all close and personal, and now he chose to flee? "Pig-chicken," she declared haughtily, turning on her heel and flipping her braid over her shoulder. She heard him snort behind her, and it was almost enough to change her mind again.

It wasn't over. She'd get her answers sooner or later - he couldn't avoid it forever, whatever _it_ was.

But for the moment, her aggravation was forgotten as she reached the river and finally bent.

* * *

Appa rose above the layer of clouds, groaning in satisfaction as the sun caressed his fur. Katara let the umbrella of liquid water she'd been holding over the bison dissipate into thin droplets, which drifted down back to the clouds in a curtain of diamond dust.

She'd been able to cover Appa entirely with the umbrella, huge as he was. It had strained her concentration, but it hadn't been _hard_. She knew exactly what to do, all the movements she needed to guide the water, and she could pull so much of it with so little effort. It was as if her mind was more attuned to the water, so the water was more responsive to her in return. Her morning bending session had been exhilarating, but now the questions were piling up. Whatever had happened to her bending, it wasn't natural.

"Not that I don't appreciate being able to keep dry when we go through clouds," Sokka said, watching her sit back down after releasing the umbrella. "But... What's going on, Katara?"

Lee stopped squinting at the sun to look at them, and Aang twirled from Appa's head onto the saddle so he could participate in the conversation.

"That's what I'd like to know," Katara replied. "I can bend now, apparently."

"That's a good thing, right?" Aang asked, spreading his arms. He seemed to be happier and more excited for her than she was. He was probably glad the issue of her bending didn't create friction between them anymore. "That means you can teach me more stuff! How do I make an umbrella?"

Katara didn't answer, though she made a mental note to teach him later. "I'm not saying it's bad. It's just weird."

Sokka frowned, rubbing his chin. "Are you sure that it couldn't be normal progress?" At her disgruntled look, he lifted his hands in defense. "I'm making sure."

She sighed. "Yeah. At the rate I was going, it would have taken me another fourteen years to be able to bend like this."

Lee muttered something that sounded like _Doubt it._

"Let's ask the Northern Water Tribe when we get there," Aang proposed.

Katara nodded. She'd been thinking about that, too.

Sokka seemed deep in thought, his blue eyes clouded. He glanced at Katara, then, so quickly she almost missed it, at Lee. "Do we even need to go? Is there any point?" At their surprised expressions, he elaborated. "Think about it. We'll have to cross miles of Fire Nation infested territory, and _if_ we get to Water Tribe waters we'll spend days and possibly weeks looking for a city that we have no idea where to find. It might have been worth it before, but Katara doesn't need a teacher now. Aang could just learn from her, and maybe, while we're at it, we can start looking for an earthbending teacher." He shrugged. "We wouldn't be able to ask them about Katara's freaky powers, but it would save a lot of time."

Katara opened her mouth to argue out of habit before realizing her brother was making a lot of sense. There was no point to their journey anymore; they'd set off to the North Pole so she and Aang could learn waterbending, but she knew waterbending now. It was just that it had been their goal for so long, it felt weird to just discard it like that. "Yeah... I guess that makes sense." Though some part of her was disappointed. She'd been so exited to see master waterbenders in action and experience life in her sister tribe.

She wasn't the only one, apparently. "Oh. I've always wanted to visit the North Pole," Aang moped.

"We still have to go," Lee stated. "There's something else, apart from the waterbending, that we need to do there."

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked.

"Since the start of the war, the Northern Water Tribe has only fought defensively," he explained. "They guard their waters and a couple northern Earth Kingdom villages from Fire Nation incursions, but that's it. When the Fire Nation realized the Northeners weren't going to move from their ice fortresses, they decided to leave them alone and focus their efforts on the Southern Water Tribe, who controlled most of the sea and were doing the most damage, and then on the Earth Kingdom."

Sokka frowned. "You're saying the Northern Water Tribe didn't help?"

"That's right."

"Why?" Katara asked, feeling betrayed. The South had suffered and lost so much in the war. Their current numbers were in the double digits while before the war they'd been a nation of tens of thousands. And as the South's population was decimated, the North had just stood there and watched?

"It's not as simple as it looks," Lee said. "When the Air Nomads were extinguished, for a while, everyone thought the Avatar had died with them."

"So?" Katara asked.

"The next Avatar in the cycle had to be born in the Water Tribes," Sokka said slowly.

Lee nodded. "Exactly. The Water Tribes disagreed on their strategy. The South thought that they had to try and stop the Fire Nation immediately by going on the offensive. The North thought the new Avatar should be protected at all costs, even if that meant they could only provide token aid to the other nations. Because if the Fire Nation managed to kill the water Avatar quickly, as a child, like the air Avatar... And if they then did the same to the earth Avatar..."

"A fire Avatar would be born," Sokka continued, easily following the line of reasoning. "With him on their side, the Fire Nation would be unbeatable."

Lee nodded grimly. "And when _he_ died, since there were no Air Nomads, the cycle would be broken."

Katara absorbed the information. It made sense, but at the same time, it seemed so... cowardly and heartless.

"And they were right," Lee continued. "That was actually Sozin's strategy. He wanted the Fire Empire to be eternal, and that meant he had to get rid of the Avatar. He targeted the Air Nomads first because he knew the Avatar was among them. Once he'd successfully "killed" the Air Avatar, he knew he had a few years before the new Avatar would be a threat, so he focused all his attention on his war with the Southern Water Tribe, sending assassins to kill children of the right age. Later, he started targeting all waterbenders, just in case. He tried to do the same with the North, but they were too well-prepared by then."

Suddenly all the pieces clicked. "That's the reason for the raids," Katara breathed. It hadn't just been senseless, gratuitous cruelty towards waterbenders. They wanted to make sure none of the benders were the Avatar reborn. That was why her mother-

Had her mother believed that perhaps _Katara_ was the new Avatar? Had her sacrifice been more meaningful than- not that it made a difference, now.

Sokka put his hand on her shoulder, and she realized she was clutching her pendant. She hurriedly wiped a stray tear out of her eye. "But what does any of this have to do with the Northern Tribe now?"

"The Northern Tribe has stayed isolated from the war ever since," Lee said. "Hoping that one day, the Water Avatar would be born, and they'd be strong enough to protect him." He stared at Aang, his eyes unwavering and intense. "I've - many factions have tried to convince them, multiple times, to commit to an attack. With their help, we could take back control of the seas and deprive the Fire Nation of their biggest advantage. But they've refused every time. The only one who has a chance of changing their minds is you, Aang.

You're not the Avatar they've been waiting for. But you're the proof that they don't _have_ to wait."

* * *

 _A.N.: I've lost track of how many times I've written the word Avatar in this chapter. As always, all feedback is welcome._


End file.
